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HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 



YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORIES. 



HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 

FROM THE 

EAKlvlEST TIMKS ^to 188C* 

BY 

Rt GOSSIR 
it 

i.*nw<r* or w Turkey *.nd Russia— Thbib Races, History, a*» Widfe 



NEW YORK 
}OHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

150 Worth Street, corner Mission Place 

« 






48 65 55 

JUL l 7 1942 



CONTENTS. 



tun 

Chapter I. 

Introduction— Government, Manners, and Distribution of the 

Slavonian Race, • c § 

Chapter II. 
Legendary Russia and the Appanage Period (862-1223$, ., 17 

Chapter III. 
The Period of Tartar Domination (1223-1533), • » 39 

Chapter IV, 
Ivan "The Terrible" (1533-1584). . * • .37 

Chapter V. 

A Troubled Interregnum — Serfdom Instituted — Accession of 

the Romanoff Dynasty (1584-1613), . 78 

Chapter VI. 

The Romanoff Dynasty — Michael L to Peter the Great 
(1613-1725), . . • 94 

Chapter VII. 

The Period of Female Sovereignty — Catherine I. to Catherine 

the Great (1725-1726) 138 

Chapter VIIL 
The First Half of the Nineteenth Century, . • . .182 

Chapter IX. 
The Reign of Alexander II. t •••••• 219 

Chapter X. 

Extent of the Empire— Religion^— Education — Manners and 
Customs, . . . ~. . . . . , 244 



PREFACE 



The history of Russia is little known. Yet the tale of 
her life, through long ages of obscurity, has a peculiar 
interest; while that of her recent advance, with a ra] idity 
which has no example among modern States, to a pitch 
of territorial aggrandizement equally unparalleled, pos- 
sesses an obvious importance. In* the present little 
volume it has been sought to illustrate her condition 
during those early periods in which are hidden away 9 
great deal of vigour and romance; to sketch the manner 
in which the institutions wherewith she started were 
decomposed and reconstructed; and to trace her course 
through various trials and transformations onwards to 
her present width of dominion, and the beginnings of that 
new social order which she is labouring to found. In 
doing this, while rigid compression has been studied, 
it has also been sougbt to combine scrupulous fidelity 
with something of picturesqueness and animation ; and 
the hope is indulged that thus the attention of young 
students may be attracted and rewarded. 

iLO. 



HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Primitive Population. — The first inhabitants of Russia 
proper about whom anything is known were Slavonians. 
They belonged to the European branch of the great 
Scythian family. When they first settled in the country 
cannot be determined. At one time the territories of 
the race were very wide. The ancient Thracians are 
now thought to have belonged to it, probably with an 
intermixture of Pelasgic blood. So did the Dacians, the 
Mcesians, and other populations to the north of Thrace, 
as also the Venti of the Adriatic whom Csesar conquered. 
The names of many places in the Morea are the same with 
those of places in Pomerania and round Moscow, while 
its popular songs are more deeply tinged with Slavonian 
than with Grecian superstitions. After the fall of Rome, 
peoples of the Slavonic stock occupied the whole of 
Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia, as well as the lands 
betwixt the Danube and the Balkans. Their chief seats, 
however, were further north, between the Dnieper and 
the upper reaches of the Volga, coming west to the 
Baltic, and sending their offshoots on to the icy seas. 
Their neighbours gave them various names. The Scan- 
dinavians called them the Vanar. To the Germans they 
were the Wenden. The Latins styled them the Venetse. 
The appellation they took themselves was that of Sirbi 



10 HISTORY OF BUfiSU. [OHAP. L 

The name Slavonian is of comparatively recent origin, 
though its derivation is obscure. Some trace it to the 
native word " slava," which means glory; while others 
find its root in " slova," which signifies speech. 

Government and Manners of the Slavonians. — Though 
great horse-breeders and cattle-rearers the Slavonians 
early settled in village communities, and addicted them- 
selves to tillage. Gibbon quotes a manuscript referring 
to the close of the Roman period which states that there 
were 4600 villages dotted over the area of what was to 
become Russia and Poland. If the statement be correct, 
it is clear the villages must have been small; and it is 
curious to find, that to this day, among the Wends of 
Lusatia, the hamlets in which the inhabitants congregate 
are notably less in size than those of the neighbouring 
Germans. As to the social organization of the Slavonians, 
recent research has brought out discrepant views. The 
old chronicle, known as that of the monk Nestor, says 
" every man lived in his own rod separately," and every 
man ruled his own " rod" This word rod is now inter- 
preted as meaning an association of relatives; hence some 
writers have concluded that the Slavonians were origin- 
ally divided into clans. Others maintain that the term 
had an older use, which restricted it to a family, and so 
that all the statement implies is, that every Slavonian 
was master in his own household. In any case, it is 
plain that more general arrangements soon came to be 
adopted in respect of government and authority. Superior 
bravery and success in war led to the acquisition of 
superior influence; military chiefs became civil judges; 
and when the son of a hero inherited the qualities of his 
father, as well as his possessions, the parental dignity 
and power were continued to him. Eor a long while, 
however, any formal acknowledgment of hereditary title 
was most jealously excluded. The people reserved not 
only the privilege of choosing their chiefs, but likewise 
that of dismissing them. This was done whenever they 
were convicted of malpractices, and sometimes when there 
was nothing but suspicion to go upon, 



GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS OP THE SLAVONIANS. 11 

The variety of names given to these chiefs was even 
greater than the distinctions in their ranks and duties, 
though that was considerable. We read of boyards, and 
voywods, and kniaz, of pans, and jupans, with many 
others, all of which names survive among different por- 
tions of the race. The two first, from voye, a combat, 
were obviously applied in the outset to famous warriors, 
though ere long they came to designate great rulers and 
magistrates in general. The word kniaz is supposed to 
have meant the owner of thirty horses, whence it grew 
to the signification of noble captain or prince. For ages 
the most honourable functionary was the jupan. A 
cluster of villages was united in a jupa, which formed a 
district or hundred. At the head of each was the jupan. 
His chief duty was the administration of justice. Under 
him were several suddafs, sheriffs or inferior judges, who 
assisted him in his work. Above him, at least among 
certain tribes, was the pan, who had the superintendence 
of several districts, and who presided over the diets which 
the people of those districts held for common -council. 
To this day there are tracts of country where the peasants 
call their judges by no other name than jupan ; while in 
Polish pan is the name for a lord. 

The Slavonians, as became an agricultural people, were 
peaceably disposed, simple, and hospitable. Yet they 
could fight well, and cherished several customs marked 
by great ferocity and barbarism. When attacked they 
drew a rampart of linked cars about their camp, and 
placed their women and children in the centre. If they 
succeeded, they showed themselves cruel and greedy of 
plunder. In time of peace, however, it was accounted 
disgraceful to turn a stranger from the door. Rather 
than deny entertainment, a poor man was reckoned to be 
justified in stealing from a rich neighbour the means of 
giving it creditably, the virtue being held far to outweigh 
the vice. Music was cultivated with enthusiastic ardour. 
Many Slavonic songs which are still popular seem to be 
very old. So are numerous Russian couplets in praise 
of the Danube and the gods of paganism, which are fre- 



12 RISTOBT OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. I. 

quently quoted by the common people. The national 
instrument was the gusla, a species of guitar, played with 
a bow, to the accompaniment of the voice, though some 
sort of harps and lutes appear to have been in use also. 
Even on warlike expeditions these were not left behind, 
though the well-known story, told by Procopius, of a 
tribe of Slavi who were attacked at night by a Greek 
emperor, a.d. 592, being found with no arms, but only 
harps, in their camp, must be treated with scepticism — 
unless, indeed, the explanation be that he had come upon 
a number of minstrels like the Celtic bards, or the Scan- 
dinavian scalds, a class of men who, in all probability, com- 
posed those metrical romances about Kief and its glories 
which yet find recital even on the confines of Siberia. 
Polygamy was permissible, and widows were burned on 
the funeral piles of their husband. Male children were 
reared for war, being mounted on horseback, and having 
their hair cut, when they were eight years old ; but 
superfluous daughters were destroyed at birth. More- 
over, when people became aged and helpless, they were 
left to die of want. 

Every jupa had its chief town, where all religious rites 
were celebrated. No separate class of priests existed. 
The religion was polytheistic. The principal figures in 
the Slavonian Pantheon were the Biel Bog, or white 
god, and the Cherni Bog, or black god, representing 
respectively the principles of good and evil. Among the 
lesser deities, who, however, received greater adoration, 
were Perune, the god of thunder, an image with golden 
whiskers; Radegast, the god of hospitality, a naked man 
with the head of a lion, crowned by a bird; Porenut, the 
god of seasons; Yolos, the god of flocks; and Kupala, 
the god of fruits — whose fete-day, the 23d of June, is 
still observed in Russia, the name of tue pagan deity 
being linked with that of a Christian saint, and the dav 
being styled the festival of St. John Kupala. The god 
of war was named Rugevit, and was represented with 
seven faces. He had a colleague, Swiantovid, a figure 
with two bodies and four heads, whose worship took a 



RUSSIAN SUBDIVISIONS — NOVGOROD THE GREAT. 13 

form that ensured its observance. To him was conse* 
crated a white horse, which only the keeper of the 
shrines erected in his honour was permitted to feed or 
mount, and beside him lay continually a saddle, bridle, 
and sword, that when it pleased him he might ride 
forth for conquest. This was only half of what he sym- 
bolised. In one hand he held a large horn, which, on 
his festival day, was filled with mead. According to the 
quantity which remained at the next anniversary, it was 
prognosticated whether the ensuing harvest would be 
plenteous or scanty. When the horn was emptied the 
people were invited to refresh themselves with the same 
kind of liquor as it had contained; and this they did so 
liberally that the day became one of unrestrained merri- 
ment and license — the feast of Swiantovid thus resem- 
bling that of Saturn. 

Russian Subdivisions— Novgorod the Great. — Ex- 
tending over an area so vast and so diversified, it was 
inevitable that the mass of Slavonic settlers should split 
into fragments, gathering peculiarities of feature, dialect. 
and custom. This befell naturally enough, the separa- 
tion taking three great divisions — the south Slavonians 
or Czekhs; the central Slavonians, the ancestors of the 
Poles and Lithuanians; and the north Slavonians, now 
the Russians of Muscovy. None of the divisions was 
left to develop itself freely and naturally. Each was 
assailed, broken in upon, and disrupted, by foreign 
agencies. Goths, Huns, Tartars, and Mongols swept 
over the lands of the two first in successive waves of 
resistless inundation. For a long while the third re- 
mained exempt from such disturbance. The immunity 
is no doubt justly attributable to the bleak and barren 
character of the region they inhabited. They had fallen 
into four well-marked subdivisions. One group of 
colonists had settled in the richest parts of that great 
tract of country which is drained by the Dnieper and its 
affluents. To the north-west, another group peopled the 
basin of the Dwina. To the north-east, a third group 
were to be found among the forests that overspread the 



14 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. 1 

upper part of the Volgo basin. Round Lake Hmen a 
fourth had established themselves. The development of 
regular institutions on a greater scale than the primi- 
tive " jupa," and the growth of towns much larger than 
the primitive " grad," were helped by the rise of trading 
employments. From time immemorial the products of 
the East have found transmission to Russia by the 
Caspian Sea, whence they were wont to be conveyed in 
boats up the Volga. A further journey, partly overland, 
brought them to the country about Lake Ilmen, on the 
shores of which, tradition says, centuries before the date 
at which authentic history opens, there sprang up the 
city of Novgorod. It grew till it became the capital of 
an independent community, governed by an elected pre- 
sident, and then of a confederation of such communities. 
Wider and wider spread its influence, till the inquiry, 
" Who can resist God and Novgorod the great?" passed 
into a proverb. Its prosperity, however, was marred by 
internal disorders, feuds, and revolutions, which it has 
been the fashion of historians to charge upon the demo- 
cratic spirit of the people. " Unfortunately," says the 
Frenchman Levesque, before whose book nothing worthy 
the name of a Russian history had appeared, "it is rare 
that men are willing to be peaceable unless they are bound 
with chains." The time soon came when the northern 
Slavonians were to be thus bound. The foreign influ- 
ences which had interfered with, overborne, and to some 
extent transformed, alike politically and socially, their 
kinsfolk in the south, were now to be directed upon 
them. 

Arrival of Rurik the Varangian. — How the oppor- 
tunity arose, or was taken avail of, is matter of great 
dispute. Some say that a soft-hearted president, feeling 
his death near, and vexed by a strife he had failed to 
quell, gave the counsel that some wise and strong mar. 
from the outside should be invited to take the office of 
governor. Others allege that a band of the Scandinavian 
pirates whom Harold Harfrager had driven from Norway, 
some of whom visited Iceland, while others descended 



ARRIYAL OP RURIK THE VARANGIAH. 15 

upon Britain, and others voyaged to France, found their 
way to Lake Ilmen, and made themselves masters of Nov- 
gorod. Certain it is that, whether by force or by invi- 
tation, in a.d. 862 one Rurik acquired the sovereignty. 
He brought with him two brothers, Sineus and Trevor, 
one of whom obtained the government of a district called 
Bielo-Orzero, the other that of a district called Izborsk. 
But the brothers soon died, and thus Rurik became the 
master of northern Russia. 

A modern school of Slavonic antiquaries and enthusi- 
asts have set up the untenable theory that these incomers 
were not strangers, but kinsfolk who had located them- 
selves nearer the Baltic. Despite the earnestness and 
erudition with which this conceit has been maintained, 
it must be put aside: it is scouted by^ every authority 
of note outside Russia. The very name given to the 
Btrangers, alike by old Nestor and by the Byzantine his- 
torians, " Varangians/* goes to disprove it. The word in 
the northern tongues signifies sword-men or war-men; 
and it is a striking fact that, a hundred years later, when 
a Swedish king visited Constantinople, the Yarangian 
guard, who were employed specially to protect the 
emperor, acknowledged him as their chief. Whether 
Rurik, instead of being a wanton aggressor, may not 
have been asked to compose the distracted condition of 
the state that yielded to his government, and then have 
been chosen to that office by the voluntary suffrages of 
its people, is more of a moot question. The case is pro- 
bably similar to that of the Saxons and the Picts, or the 
people of Normandy and Duke Rollo — in both instances 
the invited allies became the ultimate masters. 

Whence the name Russia? Three explanations are 
current. One derives it from Rurik. It is said he be- 
longed to the Varangian tribe or family of Rus, and 
hence the land to which he came was called Russhaya: 
Russish or Russian. Another, with much more plausi- 
bility and weight of evidence, traces it to a Slavonian 
tribe or confederation, who seem to have made their 
power felt with extraordinary effect during the first 



It HISTORY OF RUSSIA, [CHAP. & 

centuries ot the Christian era — theRhoxolani or RhoxanL 
Seeing that in the Doric and Eoli 3 dialects of Greece the 
x was expressed by s, the transition to Russian was easy 
alike as regards sound and sense. Moreover, it is shown 
alike by Roman and Byzantine historians, as well as by 
ancient chronicles and traditions, that these people occu- 
pied in the three first centuries those parts of Poland, 
Red Russia, and Kiova, which the Russians occupied in 
the ninth. The third suggested explanation connects 
itself with the myth, growing out of the Slavonian dis- 
parting, which tells how, in vastly remote ages, three 
brothers left their home in the Illyrian Mountains, each 
to found a great state; that their names were Tchekh, 
Lekh, and Russ; and that, having succeeded in their 
object, they left their names to the people who sprang 
from them. This is obviously too romantic and air- 
drawn a fancy to be accepted by the most credulous in 
the present day. The second theory, which Malte Brun 
has the merit of having stated and recommended long 
ago, has t)een received even by enthusiastic Pan-slavists; 
and the word Russ has come to be applied with strictness 
only to the Kief and the mid-Dnieper district 



CHAPTER II 

LEGENDARY RUSSIA AND THE " APPANAGE" PERIOD. 

The Reign of RuriE (862-879).— The advent of Rurik 
marks the period when the light of authentic history 
begins to dawn upon the fortunes of Russia. For a long 
while, however, the illumination it sheds is scant, feeble, 
and confused by the thick mists of tradition. The 
founder of the monarchy reigned for seventeen years. 
He ruled with a firm and vigorous hand. Yet, more 
than once, the continuance of his power was menaced by 
revolt. The last and most formidable of these attempts 
at rebellion was headed by a popular leader named 
Vadim. To subdue it was a task that gave Rurik much 
trouble, but he succeeded. Vadim was slain in fight; 
his followers were either exterminated or reduced to 
quietness; and henceforward the sovereignty of Rurik 
was acquiesced in. 

Beizure of Kief— Reign of Oleg. — Two of his com- 
panions, Ascold and Dir, imitated his example on their 
own account. They left Novgorod professing an intention 
to seek a more brilliant fortune in the service of the Greek 
emperor. As they journeyed south they came to Kief, 
which was even then a considerable town. The Slavonian 
inhabitants of the district which had it for capital — those 
Rhoxani, who of old time had often harassed the Roman 
confines near the Danube and the Carpathians, who in 
166 carried on wur against the Marcomanni, and who in 
270 were numbered among the enemies whom Aurelian 
conquered — had now sunk into tributaries of the Khazars, 
a half-nomad people of the Tartar race, the predecessors 
of theii brethren the Turks. Ascold and Dir thought 

B 



18 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. II. 

they could do no better than abide there, so, calling upon 
a number of their fellow- Varangians, they easily made 
themselves masters and rulers of the place. They soon 
became so strong that they were able to wage war against 
the Greek emperor, whom it had been their design to 
serve. Legends tell of how they were foiled in a manner 
they deemed supernatural, were so moved by the occur- 
rence that they sent for a Christian bishop to instruct 
them in his faith, gladly receiving his words, and then 
built a church dedicated to Elijah the prophet upon 
the heights of Kief, where it was said St. Andrew the 
apostle, on his westward journey nine centuries before, 
had proclaimed the doctrines of the cross. The tale of 
this Greek invasion, it must be added, gets no counte- 
nance from the Byzantine annals. 

A terrible reverse soon ensued. When Rurik died, the 
reins of government at Novgorod passed to his kinsman 
Oleg, either as being the eldest male of his family, or as 
the guardian of his infant son Igor. Oleg was ambitious, 
unscrupulous, and successful. The passion for an advance 
southwards was strong upon him. He followed Ascold 
and Dir to Kief. His party dropped down the Dnieper 
in a few galleys which it was given out were merchant 
craft. The two chiefs were tempted on board, were then 
seized by hidden warriors, and were forthwith put to 
death. Oleg and Igor were readily recognised as fit 
successors in the government, and thus the course of 
Russian annexation and conquest was begun. With the 
aspect and situation of Kief, Oleg was greatly charmed. 
He named it a "fit mother of cities," and transferred 
thither from Novgorod the seat of government. 

He made his power felt all around. No doubt many 
of his wars were merely ravaging forays. He is credited, 
however, with having, like his predecessors, organised an 
expedition against Constantinople, which, unlike theirs, 
was attended by a measure of success. In this instance, 
too, the story is dubious, being probably invented to 
adumbrate what was to come after, under the strong 
influence which it has exerted. His death is said to 



A.D. 912-945.] REIGN OP IGOR. 19 

have taken place in a manner which repeats a fable con- 
tained in a very old Icelandic saga. He had a favourite 
horse which he had ceased to ride, because the diviners 
had predicted it would cause his death. The animal 
itself died. Going to look at it, Oleg placed his foot on 
the skull, whence issued a serpent that stung him. The 
wound proved fatal. 

Reign of Igor (912-945). — Igor succeeded him. Hia 
reign was long, but it was one of chequered prosperity. 
Twice over he certainly did make war against the Greeks. 
On the first occasion he was unsuccessful. His galleys 
were burned by Greek fire, and his land forces had great 
difficulty in making their way back. On the second 
occasion the tables were turned. Igor made way so far 
that the emperor was scared; the stoppage and return of 
the invaders were bought with gold;* and a treaty was 
concluded between the powers, in which for the first time 
the term " Russian land" was used. At Kief, the con* 
firmafcion of this bargain was made the subject of a 
religious ceremonial. The Christian Varangians, who 
had changed creeds with Ascold and Dir, repaired to the 
church, and took oath upon the gospel to its observance; 
Igor and his fellow-pagans laid their swords and shields 
at the feet of Perune, the thunder-god, and then swore 
to the compact. 

He was killed in a contest with the Drevilians, an out- 
lying Slavonian tribe, who held land among the forests 
and hills to the westward of the Pripet, and who were of 
a sterner and fiercer breed than the men of the plains. 
An attempt was made to exact from them a heavy tribute. 
They paid the first slight demand which was made upon 
them, but this renewed and increased imposition they 
resisted with great energy. In striving to make his levy 
Igor was worsted, was taken prisoner, and slain. His 
assassination was avenged in a perfidious and wholesale 
manner by his widow, Olga, a woman of great beauty 
and commanding talent, who bore rule during the mino- 
rity of her son Sviatoslaf. Sne professed to desire peace 
with the Drevilians, invited their chief men to her court, 



20 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [OHAP. IL 

and had them killed while enjoying a great feast she had 
prepared for them. Then she started with an army who 
pillaged and destroyed wherever they went, encountering 
little resistance except at the town of Korosten, the place 
where Igor met his death. It was taken by artifice. The 
queen promised she would raise the siege if she were 
presented with all the pigeons in the place. Having got 
them she had rags steeped in oil tied to each. After 
night-fall the rags were lighted, the birds were \&t loose, 
and they, flying wildly back to their homes, very soon 
set the thatched huts of the town in a blaze. In the 
confusion the inhabitants were cut off. 

The Regency of Olga — Her Conversion to Chris- 
tianity.— For the ensuing twelve years Olga guided the 
affairs of the principality Her conduct in that office 
was such as to render her a memorable personage in 
Russian annals. In them she is distinguished by the 
appellation of " the wise." Undoubtedly she was a 
woman of remarkable energy, and still more remarkable 
foresight. In various respects she was much before the 
ideas of her time and people, though in others she exag- 
gerated their worst qualities, particularly those of deceit 
and cruelty. To the task of internal improvement she 
gave herself with unwearying diligence and sagacious 
knowledge. She founded many new villages in well- 
chosen sites. She developed means of communication 
by laying out suitable roads. She cared for the admini- 
stration of justice with a jealous care. She endowed 
sundry institutions of a sort intended to mould and 
benefit the future. There is reason in the eulogy which 
pronounces her the mother of Russian civilization. 

She tried to introduce Christianity as well. Her at- 
tention was turned to its claims when she had surren- 
d 32'oi the throne to her son. The motives for inquiry 
may have been as questionable as the sincerity of her 
conversion; but, at any rate, she was led to abjure 
paganism. To inquire was the ostensible reason for a 
visit paid to Constantinople almost immediately after 
her abdication. The emperor at that time was Coi*« 



A.D. 957-972.] THE REIGN OP SVIOTASLAF. 21 

stantine Porphyrogenitus, the historian. From the de- 
scription he gives it is plain she was received with much 
respect, which soon changed to admiration. She was im- 
pressed alike by the grandeur of the churches and of the 
services conducted within them. When she intimated 
her wish to be baptized, Constantine himself proffered to 
stand sponsor. The ceremony was performed by the 
patriarch, who pronounced over her the benediction: 
" Blessed art thou among Russian women, in that thou 
hast turned from darkness unto light. From generation 
t4 generation shall the Russian people call thee blessed." 
The prediction has been abundantly fulfilled. Before 
her death her fame as a ruler was an object of popular 
reverence ; long after it the church added the honour of 
canonization; and to this day the wise and sainted Olga 
holds a pre-eminent place in the catalogue of Russia's 
worthies. Not that it can be averred her conduct, even 
after her change of creed, was above reproach. When 
she left Constantinople, the emperor loaded her retinue 
with valuable gifts. She promised in return to send 
presents of fur and wax, which were in much request, 
as also some recruits for the Varangian guard. These 
promises she found it convenient to forget. When the 
emperor, who had pressing reasons for urgency, reminded 
her about the recruits, she replied by evasions which 
were barely civil and largely false. 

The Reign of Sviotaslaf (957-972)— Division of the 
Empire. — Sviotaslaf, much as he revered his mother, had 
no disposition to imitate her example in turning Chris- 
tian. He regarded with aversion and weariness both her 
religious observances and the attention she bestowed on 
civil affairs. His tastes were all of another sort. He 
was a man of reckless, boisterous, jovial temper, fond of 
turmoil and adventure, who cared for nothing so much 
as war and the chase. Dismissing his train of menials, 
he placed himself at the head of a hardy band of soldiers 
whom he led from place to place, camping in the open 
air, broiling his food (which was often horse-flesh) on the 
naked fire, and cutting it up with his dagger. While 



22 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IL 

Olga lived lie was content to leave the business of ad- 
ministration to her, so that no harm came of the style in 
which he indulged his likings, and her repute was ex- 
alted. During this period his constant wars led to a 
considerable extension of his dominions. After Olga 
died reverses came, and more than once the permanence 
of his possession was put in jeopardy. On one occasion, 
in his absence, Kief was besieged by the Petchenegans — 
a nomad and warlike race who had supplanted the 
Khazars, and roamed the wide steppes that lie between 
the Dnieper and the Don — who well-nigh conquered it. 
For years he was at feud with the Bulgarians, who had 
begun their long series of conflicts with the authorities 
of Constantinople, pushing them so hard that they were 
fain to pay for his help. When success shone upon his 
arms he formed the idea of abandoning Kief, and fixing 
his seat upon the Danube. His design was suspected, 
and he was put under a solemn engagement to evacuate 
the country. The pledge was given, but he so refused or 
delayed to fulfil it that the Greeks and Bulgarians came 
down in league upon him. He fought against them with 
extraordinary valour, but was overpowered and shut up 
within the walls of what is now Silistria. Here, at an 
interview with the Emperor John Zimisces, a fresh con- 
vention was agreed upon, and he took his departure. On 
his way he could not resist the temptation of dealing a 
by-stroke at the Petchenegans. They had been warned 
of his approach, and were ready for him. In the fight 
that ensued he was signally defeated. Only a few of his 
followers made their escape. He was among the slain. 
His head was cut off, and the skull was formed into a 
goblet, ornamented with gold, on which was carved an 
inscription to this effect: — "In trying to seize what 
belonged to others thou didst lose what was thine own." 
Reunion of the Provinces. — For some time Sviotaslaf 
had exerted but a nominal sovereignty. The cares of 
state which he had gladly left to his mother he was fain 
to make over, soon after her death, to his three sons. 
The eldest, Yaropolk, was the ruler of Kief; Oleg, the 



A.D. 980-1015.] VLADIMIR I. 2) 

next, had charge of the Drevilian land; while Vladimir, 
the youngest, was established at Novgorod. The ar- 
rangement was continued after their father's fall, each of 
the princes asserting a large measure of independence. 
This set the example of a style of partition which was 
often repeated in subsequent times. It always wrought 
ill, and never worse than in this first instance. The 
brethren were speedily at variance. Oleg was as devoted 
to the chase as his father. He caused a trespasser in his 
preserves to be slain. The youth was the son of 
Sviotaslafs bravest and most influential captain, who 
was mightily incensed. In his rage he prompted Yaro- 
polk to avenge the deed by making war, and in the strife 
Oleg was killed. Vladimir had an astute foreboding that 
his brother might desire to restore the unity of power, 
and be moved for that purpose to sacrifice him. He 
consulted safety, therefore, by hiding himself among his 
Varangian kinsmen beyond the Novgorod frontier. Tired 
of obscurity, however, he came back in a couple of years, 
recovered his position, and then successfully put in prac- 
tice the policy he had dreaded as against himself. He 
robbed his brother of his betrothed bride, killed her 
father with her two brethren, and then forced her into 
a marriage. Next he declared war upon Yaropolk, be- 
sieging him in the town of Rodnia, the population of 
which were reduced to such straits that their sufferings 
became proverbial. At length Yaropolk was inveigled 
into a parley. As he entered the room where it was 
given out Vladimir would be found, two assassins, posted 
behind the door, plunged their swords into him, and thus 
freed their employer from all rivalry. 

Vladimir I. (980-1015) — Christian Martyrs.— The 
throne thus foully won was filled with great distinction 
and ability during a long, eventful, and splendid reign. 
At first, Vladimir professed an ardent zeal for the old 
pagan faith. In token of his gratitude to the gods he 
erected new shrines in their honour, and reared new 
statues of themselves. The golden- whiskered Perune, in 
particular, was provided with a set of ornaments more 



24 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. It. 

ample and costly than he had previously been decorated 
with. Not satisfied with such homage it was decreed 
that a human victim should be sacrificed. A. young 
Varangian, who was a Christian, was chosen for the 
purpose. His father furiously denounced the project, 
railing against the idols in language which his passion 
rendered as eloquent as it was severe. His words so 
excited the people that they set upon his dwelling, and 
both he and his son were put to death in the tumult. 
They were the first Christian martyrs in Kief. They 
were also the last; for in a few years the greater part of 
Russia was to embrace the faith for which they suffered. 
Choice of a Religion. — They were years of immense 
activity on the part of Vladimir. He displayed vast 
powers of organization and government. He vigorously 
promoted internal reforms. He annexed fresh territories. 
He married many wives. Why or when his mind became 
unsettled on the subject of religion is not precisely known, 
but anyhow he determined to cast off the faith of his 
fathers. Thus to resolve was an easy thing, however, by 
comparison with the choice of a substitute. He gave 
himself to this task in the most deliberate and philosophic 
style. All round his territories he came in contact with 
the professors of alien creeds — Mohammedans and Jews 
in the east; Greeks in the south; the adherents of Latin 
Christianity in the west. He sent for representatives of 
each that he might learn from them the peculiar excel- 
lences of their diverse systems. The request was readily 
complied with, theological zeal being quickened by the 
prospect of acquiring a proselyte so renowned, who pro- 
fessed such a candid impartiality. The Mohammedan dele- 
gates were first heard. Vladimir's voluptuous disposition 
was so much attracted by their permission of polygamy, 
and by the account given of the Mohammedan paradise, 
that he came near an acknowledgment of the prophet; 
but then he disliked circumcision, and thought it foolish 
to prohibit eating pork or drinking wine. " Wine," he 
exclaimed, " is the delight of the Russians; we cannot do 
without it." The deputies from Germany harangued him 



A.D. 980-1015.] CHOICE OF A EELIGtOK. 25 

on the greatness of God, and the vanity of idols, in a 
manner that won his assent; but what was told him as 
to the authority of the Pope awakened the suspicion that 
his kingly authority would be interfered with ; and the 
shrewd surmise was fatal to the Romish claims. The 
Jews were next heard. They were posed by the inquiry, 
"Where is your country 1 ?" When the answer came 
that God in His anger had dispersed them, Vladimir 
broke into a fury, exclaiming, " What, do you, who are 
cursed of God, pretend to teach others? Away, we have 
no wish to lose our lands like you." Finally, there came 
a Greek sage who spoke of sin, of redemption, and of the 
final judgment, exhibiting a pictured scroll whereon was 
shown the spirits of the just, angel-led, winging their way 
to heaven, and the spirits of the damned descending, 
demon-driven, to hell. Vladimir trembled. He was 
powerfully affected. Yet he made up his mind that he 
would do nothing rashly. He sent ambassadors abroad 
to examine the character and effects of the various reli- 
gions in the countries where they prevailed. They re- 
ported contemptuously of the Mohammedan worship, and 
with little favour of the Romish; but at Constantinople 
they were introduced to the church of St. Sophia when 
the patriarch was celebrating with the utmost splendour 
the divine offices, and so struck were they that they said, 
" the temple was verily the residence of the Most High, 
and the place where His glory was manifested to mortals." 
This report, sustained by the consideration that his grand- 
mother, " Olga the wise," would not have chosen a bad 
religion, determined Vladimir. He resolved upon being 
baptized. 

Like Olga, however, he disdained the thought of stoop- 
ing to receive the rite at the hands of the Christian 
teachers in Kief; and he took even a stranger mode than 
hers for having his ambition gratified. He made war 
upon the Greek emperors (Basil and Constantine then 
reigned conjointly), while he demanded from them the 
hand of their sister, the Princess Anna. For a time it 
seemed he would have to endure disappointment. He 



26 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [chap. II. 

had invaded the Crimea, and besieged Kaffa. The town 
was defended so stoutly that, after a six months' invest- 
ment, he was about to abandon it in despair, and possibly 
his new faith as well, when an arrow was shot into his 
camp, having a letter attached which told where the 
springs were whence water was conveyed by pipes into 
the city. He tore up the channels, cut the connection, 
and so forced the inhabitants through the pangs of thirst 
to surrender. Then the emperors began to negotiate. 
They told him their sister could not wed a heathen. He 
replied that he was to become a Christian. The bride- 
elect had no taste for being joined to a barbarian she had 
never seen. At length, however, her scruples yielded or 
were overborne, and she sailed for Cherson. By the 
archbishop of that place baptism and marriage were cele- 
brated with great pomp. Vladimir returned in triumph 
to Kief with his royal spouse, as well as with priests, 
books, vases, and relics innumerable. 

A Nation Converted. — The new convert speedily 
showed himself even more zealous for the religion he had 
espoused than he had ever been for the religion he had 
abandoned. Needless must it be to say that his efforts 
on its behalf were more efficacious, in a sense, than the 
labours of a thousand missionaries would have been. 
First, his family and household were baptized. Then he 
proceeded to cast down the images he had set up. Some 
of them were burnt. Some were hewn in pieces. Perune, 
with the whiskers, was more ignominiously treated than 
any other. Tied to a horse's tail the deified log was 
dragged to the top of a hill on the banks of the Dnieper, 
was mercilessly thumped by a dozen lusty soldiers, and 
then rolled down into the stream. The method was a 
good one for banishing from the popular mind any idea 
of sacredness or of power. When the visible signs of 
paganism had thus been overthrown, the royal devotee 
issued a mandate that his people should conform to his 
adopted faith. The persuasions of a monarch are gene- 
rally successful. On a set day all the inhabitants of 
Kief, men, women, and children, who had not been bap- 



A.D. 980-1015.] CIVIL PROGRESS AND REFORM. 27 

tized, assembled on the banks of the Dnieper, into which 
they plunged at a given signal, some to the waist, others 
to the neck, while the priests and prelates who had come 
from Constantinople chanted psalms, offered prayers, and 
gave their benediction. Thus was the religion of a whole 
city revolutionised in a day. 

Like scenes were repeated over all the land, till the 
old faith was everywhere displaced, save in some seques- 
tered districts where it retained a hold for centuries. Of 
course, little can be said for the inward motive and 
effects of the change. Yet it was pregnant with great 
consequences. Had Vladimir become a Mohammedan, 
his subjects would no doubt have become Mohammedans 
too; and who can figure what would then have been 
the conditions and bearings of that Eastern question 
which has been the perplexity and despair of politicians 
for ages 1 In accepting the doctrines and ritual of t 1 e 
Greek church he took a step which has been mainly 
influential in leading up to that question in the shape we 
now have it, and at the same time has had a powerful 
effect in se^rating Russia from the civilization of western 
Europe. Throughout Europe the rise of Christianity 
found a civilization enriched more or less by the teachings 
of classical antiquity, and the new faith made its way 
through centuries of conflict. Thus the marks of what 
was old and what was new were impressed upon every 
sphere of life. In Russia there was almost no pre-Chris- 
tian history, or pre-Christian culture, while the accept- 
ance of the Byzantine ritual, ready-made and wholesale, 
was a proceeding that did not touch or raise the religious 
consciousness of the people. The effects of that easy com- 
pliance are traceable all through the centuries. 

Civil Progress and Reform. — Though the style of his 
apostolate casts ridicule upon the spirituality of his 
faith, a decisive change was wrought upon Vladimir. It 
is traceable perhaps to the influence of his consort, 
whom he loved with all the deep and true attachment 
of his strong nature. She had left Constantinople with 
the sad remark, "I go into captivity; better were it 



28 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IL 

for me to die here." But her forebodings were falsi- 
fied, and she found no cause to wish an opportunity for 
return. Her husband was softened and humanised. He 
gave up his licentious habits. His delight in bloodshed 
passed away. Even the bishops he had installed remon- 
strated with him about his slackness and scrupulosity in 
ordering the punishment of hardened criminals and bri- 
gands. Some modern historians have suggested that very 
possibly these offenders were obstinate " heretics." The 
conjecture may be correct, but, apart from this, it is 
certain that Vladimir exhibited in manifold ways a 
clement and magnanimous disposition. 

He continued to be successful in war, when occasion 
came ; but his energies were devoted to the attainment 
of peaceful triumphs. He adopted the policy of Olga, 
bringing to its accomplishments greater authority and 
larger resources. Like her he made roads, built bridges, 
amended laws, and conferred permanent endowments 
upon what he deemed useful institutions. Greek archi- 
tects planned his churches, one of which he reared on the 
hill whereon had stood the shrine of Perune, another on 
the site of. the house wherein Feodor and Ivan were mar- 
tyred. Greek teachers were brought to the seminaries 
with which he overspread the land — though in sundry 
places they found little employment, because many of his 
subjects thought of letters as a dangerous invention by 
the devil. He encouraged a system of colonising waste 
lands, more, no doubt, for the purpose of linking together 
the separate parts of his dominion than for benefiting 
the colonisers, though both ends may have been served. 
He approved himself a man of wide views and command- 
ing forecast — doing so much for his country that it is no 
marvel his countrymen, through many centuries, should 
have joined with one consent in lauding his name. The 
old chroniclers describe him as the Solomon of his age. 
In his early days he had a good title to the appellation if 
it be true that, along with four wives, he had more than 
a hundred concubines. In his later years he established 
a more meritorious claim to the title by his wisdom, by 



A.D. 980-1015.] DIVISION AND STRIFE. 29 

his temperance, by the enlargement and profundity of hia 
views, by the glories that gave splendour to his reign. 

Yet his declining years had their share of sorrow. 
The pleasant vices of his youth became the whips by 
which he was scourged in his old days. He had extended 
his power so that his dominion reached from the Black 
Sea to the Baltic, and from the Volga to the ridges of the 
Carpathians, onwards by Lithuania and Poland, parts of 
which he had subdued ; but he was tormented at home. 
Latterly his numerous family had been over-indulged, and 
they learned to take advantage of his weakness. Plying 
him with solicitations addressed both to his conscience 
and his affections, they moved him as they listed. Against 
his better judgment he consented to parcel out among his 
sons the kingdom he had consolidated, granting to each a 
hereditary fief. The evil consequences that followed such 
a partition in his father's time were repeated now in an 
aggravated form. The brothers set up as independent, 
and quarrelled among themselves. Even in his lifetime 
the strifes they waged gave premonition of the disasters 
that were to ensue. He was so incensed by the rebellious 
conduct of Yaroslaf, whom he had placed over Novgorod, 
that he started at the head of an army to inflict punish- 
ment. He had not proceeded far when a fatal illness 
suddenly seized him. He died in the summer of 1015. 
His death was kept secret till his body had been con- 
veyed to his cathedral at Kief. There it was buried, 
amid the lamentations of his people, in a splendid marble 
tomb, which soon received the remains of his Greek wife. 
For his prowess as a warrior, and his eminence as a states- 
man, Vladimir was honoured with the designation of the 
Great, while the Russian Church enrolled him among her 
saints, giving him rank as an apostle. 

Division and Strife. — Well might his subjects mourn. 
A brief period of great confusion ensued. The princi- 
pality of Kief retained the first place among the twelve 
appanages into which the country had been divided. It 
was held by Sviatopolk, the eldest son, or, as some say, 
the stepson, of Vladimir, a sanguinary personage, who 



SO HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. II. 

conceived tne idea of killing off his rivals in order that 
he might reunite the kingdom. B> proceeded with 
ruthless resolution to execute this design. The first 
victims were Boris and Gleb, princes notable for their 
fltrong attachment to each other, and both great favourites 
with the people and with the army. The circumstances 
of the deed aggravated its horrors, for Boris still survived 
when Sviatopolk came to look upon his corpse, and spake 
to him words which ever after sounded in his ears. 
When a third brother had been slain, Yaroslaf declared 
war against the usurping fratricide. At first he had an 
easy success. The tyrant fled for refuge to the court of 
his Polish father-in-law, who was induced to undertake 
the task of his restoration. At the head of a large army 
he crossed the frontier, ravaged the whole country up to 
Kief, sacked that place, and left Sviatoslaf as its master. 
Yaroslaf was so chagrined, perhaps so terrified, that be 
contemplated leaving Novgorod, for the home of his 
ancestor Hurik. His people, however, withstood this 
design, rallying round him with an extraordinary enthu- 
siasm, and volunteering great efforts for a renewal of the 
campaign. Thus encouraged, he again challenged the 
fortune of war in most propitious circumstances. Many 
of Sviatoslafs subjects deserted his army, forcing him to 
call in the help of Petchenagans as well as Poles. This 
proceeding inflamed still further the resentment felt 
against him. Then, the field on which the encounter 
took place happened to be in the vicinity of the place 
where Boris was killed. Yarosktf addressed his troops 
in a speech of great eloquence, pleading the righteousness 
of his cause, picturing his brother as a second Cain, and 
praying God to avenge his foul deeds. A signal victory 
was achieved. Sviatoslaf hied from the field terror- 
stricken. His constant cry to his attendants wa^ " On- 
wards, onwards, we are pursued." This haunting dread 
followed him all the days of his wretched life. After 
many Cain-like wanderings he died miserably, leaving as 
his designation Sviatoslaf the Accursed. 
Taroslaf the Law-giver (1019-1054). — For five and 



JL9. 1019-1054.] TAROSLAP THE LAW-GIVEB. 31 

thirty years thereafter Yaroslaf ruled at Kief, gradually 
gathering into his own hand well-nigh all the power his 
father had possessed. He ruled well. In his wars he 
generally succeeded ; his most notable repulse being sus- 
tained in an expedition led by his son againsb the Greeks, 
which was sent forth on a most inadequate excuse, and con- 
ducted in a most inadequate manner. He founded cities, 
he reclaimed waste places, he extended his territories, he 
cultivated friendly relations with most of the powers 
around him. His own wife was the daughter of the 
Swedish king. His eldest son married a daughter of the 
Saxon Harold ; his second a sister of Casimir, king of 
Poland ; the third a daughter of the Prince-archbishop 
of Treves ; and the fourth a daughter of Con star, tine 
Monomachus, the emperor at Constantinople. His eldest 
daughter, after a long and romantic courtship, became the 
wife of Harold Hardrada of Norway, who, after fighting 
the infidel in many far-off lands, was killed at Stamford 
in battle against the English Harold ; his second, wedded 
Andrew of Hungary; his third, Henry I. of France, carry- 
ing thither, it is supposed, that famous copy of the 
Evanqelie. upon which the kings of France were sworn, 
though all knowledge of its language ha.d died out, till it 
was shown at Rheims to Peter the Great, who at once 
read it off — its characters being those invented by the 
Greek monk Cyril (873), which were long used in th8 
sacred books of the Slavonian Church. 

Yaroslaf 's fame chiefly rests upon the work which gained 
for him the designation of " The Law-giver." The first 
code of written laws which the country possessed was pro- 
mulgated by him. In fact it was a compilation, but it 
contained divers new enactments. ]S r o one will pronounce 
it the work of a Justinian, yet it embodies many salutary 
provisions, as well as many that are abundantly curious. 
It legalised private vengeance for murder, and decreed 
that if the murdered person had no relations who cared 
to avenge him, then the assassin should get off by paying 
a fine to the public treasury. The amount of this fin# 
was regulated according to the rank of the person killed, 



32 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. U 

What was called the double fine of eighty grivnas (*.«., 
about thirty shillings of sterling money), was exigible for 
the slaughter of a boyard ; for a free Russian, forty; for an 
artisan, schoolmaster, or nurse, twelve. The murder 
of a woman entailed only half the usual mulct, while that 
of a serf or slave was reckoned no public offence, the 
penalty being made payable to the owner. The whole 
district was made amenable to some extent in respect of 
the crime. Thus, " if in the heat of anger, or of intoxi- 
cation, one man kill another and conceal himself, the 
district in which the murder is committed shall be respon- 
sible for the fine ; but if the assassin keep his ground, he 
shall pay one half and the district the other." In pointed 
contrast with this cheap account of life was the stringency 
of the provisions as to personal insult, which was made 
severely punishable. So were all offences against pro- 
perty. If a servant through negligence suffered his 
employer's goods to be lost or damaged, the value was to 
be made good. Yaroslaf could not have liked money- 
leiJUbrs, for he provided that if a person borrowed money 
and then denied the debt, his oath was to suffice for his 
exoneration, without any appeal to evidence or question 
of prescription. Among the stipulations of a public 
nature was one which made the monarch the heir to 
eve -y freeman who did not leave male issue. Apart from 
this there was no cupidity in the arrangements for main- 
taining the crown, while a maximum rent was fixed for 
land, corporal punishment was prohibited, and it was 
enacted that every one arraigned as an offender should 
be equal before the law. Besides his fame as a legisla- 
tor, Yaroslaf achieved a grateful memory as a patron of 
literature and the arts. 

A Period of Anarchy. — With all his wisdom he 
repeated the blunder of which his predecessors had been 
guilty, in dividing his territory among his five sons. The 
inveteracy with which this habit was adhered to and 
practised, despite its manifold and oft-illustrated evils, 
was due to a theory that every descendant of Rurik ought 
to have an appanage. 



A.D. 1019-1054.] A PERIOU OF ANARCHY. 33 

Yaroslaf made a well-meant effort to guard against 
the mischief he had so much cause to dread: On his 
death-bed he called his family together, and after hav- 
ing intimated his arrangements, made the younger sons 
vow subordination to the elder, whom he authorised 
to call for the aid of all the rest against any one who 
dared to break the peace. This precaution had little 
effect. Isiaslaf the eldest was a weak man, the others 
were greedy and ambitious. Instead of banding together 
for Isiaslaf s defence, they were more inclined to form 
a league for despoiling him. When sore bestead, he 
applied to his cousin Boleslas of Poland, surnamed the 
Bold, for assistance. Nothing loath, Boleslas raised a 
powerful army, invaded Russia, drove the disturbers out 
of Kief, and far away from it, set up the Grand Duke, 
and then entered upon the dissipations of the capital with 
~o much zest, that it seemed likely he would never go 
away. At last he was called off by a summons to fight- 
ing in Hungary, which he obeyed with an eager glad- 
ness. Eight miserable years passed, during which tho 
whole land, as well as Kief, became a prey to dissension 
tumult, and virtual anarchy. In 1075, Isiaslaf was again 
in such straits, that, after appealing in vain elsewhere, 
he anew besought the help of Boleslas. 

It was given with precisely the same results as before. 
The service sought was performed in the completest man- 
ner, and when the work was done, Boleslas and his com- 
panions found their reward in plunging with a reckless 
enormity into all manner of debaucheries. Their presence 
became almost as alarming to the feeble king as that of 
those from whom they had rescued him ; and he bribed 
them into taking their leave. Money might not have 
quickened their departure, had not Boleslas been asked 
to take part in a campaign then raging in Bohemia. He 
went thither, taking with him one of Yaroslaf s grand- 
sons, Vladimir Monomachus, a youth whose names wero 
derived from his two grand-parents. 

A year later Isiaslaf died. He was succeeded at Kief by 
tife brother Vsevolod. This was in accordance with a:i 

o 



34 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. II. 

arrangement which came to prevail for some time, by 
which the right of inheritance passed, not in the direct 
line, but to the eldest male of the family. Thus when a 
vacancy arose at Kief in the office of grand prince, there 
ensued a shifting of rulers throughout all the other prin- 
cipalities, such as mightily enhanced the confusion and 
discord which were so rife. During his father's lifetime, 
"Vladimir really conducted the government. He ruled 
with firmness and with wisdom, though now and again in 
asserting the supremacy of Kief he was guilty of ferocious 
excesses. 

Vladimir II. (1113-1125).— On the death of Vsevolod 
his eldest nephew came to the throne, and Vladimir fell 
for a time into obscurity. He soon found means, how- 
ever, to preserve his reputation, or even to exalt it, by a 
series of contests with the Polovtsi, a barbarous race 
from Central Asia, who had squatted on the southern 
flank of the empire, and harassed the population most 
direfully. They made their appearance in Yaroslafs 
time, and gave him a good deal of trouble. More than 
one great battle with them was fought during his reign. 
It will furnish an idea of the formidable character of 
these fights, as well as of the apprehensions which the 
strangers created, to quote a passage from a twelfth cen- 
tury poem, called " The Expedition of Igor." He was a 
son of Yaroslafs, and Prince of Novgorod. He assembled 
his warriors to take vengeance upon the hated Polovtsi, 
vowing to " break his lance in distant deserts, where his 
ashes would remain if he could not dip his helmet in the 
Don, and quench his thirst in its waters." The poet 
describes the meeting of the host — how the neighing of 
horses is heard beyond Sula, the voice of glory resounds 
in Kief, the blast of the trumpet rouses Novgorod, and at 
Pontivle the standards float in the wind. There, Igor 
awaits his brother Vsevolod, who comes with his troops 
" like wolves eager for the carnage." Of course the bar- 
barians are routed, though the carnage is dreadful, and 
the victory far from decisive. Says the poet: "The 
banks of the Niemen are covered with heads as numerous 



4.D. 1113-1125.] TLADIMIR II. 35 

as the sheaves in autumn; and like descending flails, the 
swords separate warriors' souls from their mortal cover- 
ing. Oh! mournful times! Why could not the great 
Vladimir remain on the mountains of Kief?" (that is 9 
why was he not immortal 1). Against these stubborn 
foes, who were afterwards absorbed by immigrants from 
the same region, the second Vladimir had no more last* 
ing success than his uncle and father. In his old age he 
mentioned that he had concluded nineteen treaties with 
them, that he had taken more than a hundred of their 
greatest chieftians, whom he afterwards set free, and that 
he had punished or drowned in the river upwards of two 
hundred more. The earlier of these exploits kept his 
name in public view, as did his conduct upon an occa- 
sion when, having undertaken to punish the perfidy and 
cruelty of his cousin who reigned in Kief, he was induced, 
like a second Coriolanus, and by the like means, to spare 
the town. His forbearance had its reward. When his 
cousin died, the inhabitants, whose prayer he had heard, 
besought him to become their ruler. After some coy 
denials he consented. In 1113, being then sixty years 
of age, he mounted the throne, where he sat for thirteen 
years. 

They were years of great prosperity. Vladimir was a 
man fully equal to the greatest of his predecessors. He 
had gained fame as a warrior; but when he came to the 
throne he illustrated the brightest qualities of a ruler. 
His aims were high and noble; in carrying them out he 
evinced great comprehension and energy; and the pro- 
sperity which crowned his efforts was very signal and 
encouraging. In his time Russia took higher rank among 
the nations than she had ever done. His most remark- 
able work was a rescension of the legal code which his 
grandfather had composed. The spirit in which this was 
done, was akin to that which inspired his last testament 
to his family — one of great benevolence and wisdom. 
" my children," he therein wrote, " love God; love also 
mankind. It is neither fast, nor seclusion, nor monastic 
life which can save you; but good works. Do not forget 



36 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. TU 

the poor; feed them, and think that all goods belong to 
God, and are entrusted to you only for a time. Do not 
hide treasures in the bowels of the earth, for this is con- 
trary to the Christian religion. Be fathers to the orphans; 
judge the widows yourselves, and do not permit the 
stronger to oppress the weaker. ... In your house- 
holds look to everything yourselves, without relying on 
your stewards and servants; and the guests will not find 
fault either with your house or with your dinner. In 
time of war be active, and be an example to your officers. 
Repose only after having established the nightly watch. 
Men may suddenly perish ; therefore do not lay aside 
your armour when danger may happen, and mount your 
horses early. Above all, respect a stranger, be he a great 
or a common man, an ambassador, or a merchant; and if 
you cannot give him presents, satisfy him with meat and 
drink, because strangers spread in foreign countries good 
and bad reports of us. Love your wives, but give them 
no power over yourselves. Remember every good thing 
you have learned, and learn what you do not know." 
The precepts which he thus inculcated, Vladimir enforced 
by an appeal to his own example. " I have myself," he 
says, " done all that I could order a servant to do. In 
hunting and war, by day and night, during the heat of 
summer and the cold of winter, I have known no repose. 
I have never relied on magistrates and officers. I never 
allowed the poor and widows to be oppressed by the 
strong. I myself superintended the church, the divine 
service, the household, the stakes, the hunt, the hawks, 
the falcons. . . . Between morning and evening I 
have travelled a hundred miles. Amid thick forests I 
have, with my own hands, bound several wild horses at 
once, and I have had many remarkable escapes from the 
attacks of savage animals." 

A Century of Confusion. — The death of this great 
monarch opened a long period of confusion and disaster. 
For a century onwards, the history of the country resolves 
itself into a sickening record of civil broils and wasted 
strength. The authority of Vladimir's successors in the 



A.D. 1113-1125.] A CENTURY OP CONFUSION. 37 

Grand Dukedom was set at nougat. The commotions 
that agitated the provinces sometimes shook down the 
occupants of the principal throne. In more than one 
instance they were compelled to share the fate they had 
themselves dealt out to refractory and vanquished princes 
— having their eyes put out, and being forced to a life- 
long retirement in a monastery. In these circumstances, 
the supremacy that Kief had so long possessed gradually 
waned and fell. It was finally overthrown by Andrew, 
the Prince of Souzdal, a large territory in the centre of 
the kingdom. A clear-sighted man, he perceived the ter- 
rible evils that connected themselves with the prevalent 
anarchy. An ambitious man, he conceived the idea of 
consolidating the various principalities, and raising him- 
self to the first place. This design he pursued for many 
years with mingled adroitness and vigour. At length h^ 
was strong enough to assail the capital, in which, a short 
time before, his father had reigned. At the head of a con- 
federacy, which included other ten princes, in 1169, he 
laid siege to Kief, which he took and sacked. Setting up 
his younger brother to bear rule in the desolated province, 
he transferred the seat of power to his own chief city, 
Vladimir, a town which had been founded by Vladimir 
Monomachus. For over a hundred years it retained the 
pre-eminence thus conferred, while the city of Ascold and 
Dir, " the mother of cities," as Oleg had named it, never 
recovered from this first shock of what was destined to 
prove a long succession of calamities. 

Andrew did not fare so well in his attempt upon the 
independence of the prior capital. The corporate life and 
democratic spirit of Novgorod asserted themselves very 
determinedly. The inhabitants discarded the hereditary 
form of rule, constituted themselves a veritable republic, 
and insisted upon their right to choose and to dismiss at 
will their chief magistrate. No doubt they abused this 
power very grievously, for in a period of less than a hun- 
dred years thirty-four men filled that office. > Despite this 
fickleness, the city grew in wealth and size; nor did their 
devotion to trade impair the prowess of its people. After 



38 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IL 

the destruction of Kief, Andrew marched northward to 
subdue them. The citizens offered a stout resistance. 
Religion came in aid of patriotism to nerve their arms 
and sustain their courage. The archbishop with his 
clergy marched in solemn procession round the ramparts, 
carrying with them a picture of the Virgin. Report 
says that it was hit by a random arrow from the ranks 
of the besiegers. Straightway a fury of indignation was 
roused among the defenders. They rushed forth upon 
their adversaries with an impetuosity as irresistible as 
it was unexpected, routing them with a tremendous 
slaughter, and taking so many prisoners, that they were 
sold by the score for two pieces of silver. At a later 
date, a descendant of Andrew's did manage to bring 
Novgorod under his yoke; but the thraldom was short- 
lived, and except for the brief period of its duration, the 
place continued on till 1553 to be a free and thriving 
city, and a leading member of the Hanseatic League 
formed for the promotion of commerce and the repres- 
sion of piracy. 

Meanwhile, in the country at large, the confusion, 
degradation, and misery that prevailed, grew worse and 
worse. The bold attempt to restore internal unity made 
by Andrew of Souzdal, after having proceeded so far, was 
cur, short by his assassination. His descendants gave 
themselves now and again, with a species of fitful energy, 
to a revival of the project; but their efforts went no 
farther than to enhance the widespread disturbances and 
embitter the civil strife. The internal history of the 
country became a dreary record of ceaseless wars and 
changes, through which the most patient of the Russian 
annalists can scarce thread their way, while all round 
the exterior, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, Livonians, 
and Fins, began to press on the borders of the empire. 
But a more formidable enemy still was at hand, ad van o 
uig from the east. 



CHAPTER IH 

THE PERIOD OF TARTAR DOMINATION 

Eight hundred years had passed since that Calmuck 
Napoleon, Attila the Hun, announcing himself as " the 
scourge of God," swept over Europe like a desolating 
pestilence, when a successor of the same type appeared in 
the person of Temudgin, a Mongolian chief, who, having 
formed the design of conquering the world, took the 
designation of Zingis Khan, or " most great ruler." 
The Mongols, or Moguls, over whom he ruled, had been 
for ages roaming about Asia, to the north and north-east 
of the Chinese wall. Under the spell of his ascendancy 
they were united in one great horde, who became the 
masters of all northern Asia, from China to the Caspian 
Sea. First they subdued their kinsmen to the east, the 
Calmucks, and other branches of the same race. Then 
they came westward, bending to their will the Turkish 
or Tartar populations, spreading terror wherever they 
appeared, killing innumerable multitudes or reducing 
them to slavery, sacking or razing cities, and doing it so 
thoroughly that Zingis boasted his horse could, without 
stumbling, gallop over the ruins of every place he had 
devoted to destruction. Folio winac the southern shores 
of the Caspian they thus turned the flank of the Cau- 
casus, and suddenly appeared in 1223 to the west of that 
mountain bulwark. The ancient foes of Russia, the 
Polovtsi, were the first to encounter these ferocious 
savages, bj whom they were scattered like chaff before 
the wind. Fleeing in dismay to Kief, they carried thithei 
the tidings of the terrible enemy who was at hand. The 
dread of a common peril overcame the feuds and jealousies 



40 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IIL 

of long years. The Russian princes entered into a league 
by which they bound themselves to stand true to each 
other in opposition to the hazard by which they were 
menaced ; and the alliance was extended so as to include 
the fugitive Polovtsi. Marching eastwards, the combined 
forces met the invaders on the banks of the Kalka. A 
great battle ensued, in which some portions of the allies 
behaved ill. Whether from cowardice or treachery, the 
Prince of Kief hung back, "and the Polovtsi gave little 
help to the common cause. The Tartars, as they were 
named, gained an easy victory, whicli they followed up 
in the ruthless fashion habitual with them. They ra- 
vaged the country on to the banks of the Dneiper, and had 
they chosen to persevere, might have overrun it at their 
pleasure. When they reached that stream they were 
overtaken by an order from their imperial master, direct- 
ing their return. It was at once obeyed. Wheeling 
round their squadrons they rode back, disappearing as 
suddenly as they had come. 

Baty's Invasion — Moscow Burned — Novgorod Threat- 
ened. — It might have been supposed that the relief thus 
experienced would have been turned to good account. 
The imminence of the peril, which had been so unexpec- 
tedly stayed, ought to have illustrated the folly of those 
internal divisions, which had reduced the country to a 
condition of impotence, and laid it at the mercy of this 
powerful assailant. Nothing of the kind took place. 
Civil discords soon became as rife and violent as before. 
Blood was copiously shed in quarrels the motives of 
which are as obscure as their results were lamentable. 
For the next dozen years the country seethed with mean- 
ingless contentious, which only exhausted its strength. 

Then an event befell, the exceeding probability of which 
all wise men might have descried. The Tartars returned. 
They were led by Batu or Baty, the grandson of Zingis. 
They found the task of conquest even easier than before. 
Having subdued the Bulgarians on the Volga, they 
entered the principality of Raizan. The Russian autho- 
rities of that province sent north to implore assistance, but 



A.D. 1239.] KIEF DESTROYED. 41 

a deaf ear was turned to their petition. This callous 
indifference was speedily visited with a meet reward. 
The invader pushed steadily onward, burning and ra- 
vaging as he went. The city of Moscow, which had 
begun to rise into importance, was destroyed. That of 
"Vladimir shared the same fate, after a courageous but 
ineffectual attempt to raise the siege . upon the part of 
Yury, the prince of that province. He was killed in the 
height of the contest, and his followers were cut off to the 
last man. His wife, and the ladies who were her atten- 
dants, were burned in the principal church, to the altar 
of which they had fled for refuge. For a while Baty 
encamped near the blackened ruins of the capital. Then, 
resuming his march, he pressed on towards Novgorod. 
The energetic inhabitants of that place made every pre- 
paration for a stout defence, but there seemed little 
hope that they could beat back the conqueror, or escape 
that doom of torch and sword which he had inflicted 
elsewhere. When within sixty miles of the city, how- 
ever, he halted, faced about, and left it unmolested, 
returning to the steppes of the Don, though overthrowing 
Kozalk on his way. 

The alarm which the visit of these marauders created 
was intense and widespread. It extended to the furthest 
extremities of northern Europe. On account of it the 
inhabitants of Sweden and Friesland abstained from 
sending vessels to take away their usual supplies of her- 
rings caught upon the British coasts. This failure, in 
what even then was a large and regular demand, caused 
a glut in the home markets, and the harvest of the sea 
was sold at lower figures than had ever been known. 
Gibbon has some very characteristic observations upon 
the astounding fact that the action of a Mongolian khan, 
whose seat was on the borders of China, should have 
reduced the incomes of fishermen at Yarmouth. 

Kief Destroyed — A Cool Commander. — In 1239 Baty 
resumed his career of devastation. He now advanced 
across Southern Russia. His progress was even more 
destructive, had that been possible, than on the occasion 



4fr HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. III. 

of hi& former marches, " It seemed," says Karamsin, the 
famous Russian historian, "as if a deluge of fire had 
passed over the land from east to west ; as if pestilence, 
earthquake, and all the scourges of nature had united to 
ensure its destruction." Tchernigof was the first city 
that fell. Then Kief was attacked. It was strongly 
garrisoned, and a very stubborn resistance was main- 
tained. The stiffness of the contest only increased the 
fury of its assailants, and aggravated the horrors of its 
fate. The bastions of its fortifications having been broken 
down, the place was put at the mercy of the besiegers. 
Then, by means of huge battering-rams, breaches were 
made in its walls. Entrance having been gained the city 
was fired, and its inhabitants were slaughtered without 
regard to age, sex, or condition. Many of them found 
shelter in the church of St. Sophia, where they resolved 
to continue the defence, selling their lives as dearly as 
they could. An unfortunate occurrence prevented them 
from holding out for any length of time. They had 
stuffed the church with their treasures. Under the 
weight some of its chambers fell. Many of the refugees 
were bruised by the falling ruins, and in the confusion 
which ensued the others fell an easy prey to the Tartar 
swords. An incredible ferocity and ruthlessness marked 
the procedure by which ancient Kief was turned into a 
ruinous heap. Yet one incident stands out as excep- 
tional, and proves that the leader of this barbarous horde 
was not incapable of magnanimity. The commander of 
the place was taken alive, and by Baty's orders, was 
conducted to his presence. In the interview which took 
place, the intrepid bearing and free speech of his prisoner 
powerfully impressed the victor, who suffered himself to 
be advised in a manner that brought important conse- 
quences. The miserable condition of the country was 
pointed out. Ifc was told not only how it had been 
weakened by dissensions, but wasted by mis^overnment. 
The conclusion was enforced that little would be won by 
subjecting it to conquest, by comparison with what might 
be gained by turning attention to Poland and Hungary. 



A.D. 1294.] "THE GOLDEN HORDE." 43 

This diversion was made. Baty held on his course west* 
ward, subduing provinces in Poland, Hungary, Croatia, 
Servia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Moravia. He burst 
over these lands like a thunder-storm. Fortunately for 
Europe, his advance received such a check as induced 
him to pause. Then hastily retracing his course to the 
Volga, he established his head-quarters upon one of its 
arms, and founded there the magnificent city of Sarai, 
the home of " the Golden Horde," as it was called, from 
which, for a time, the whole of eastern Europe was ruled, 
as being but a segment of the prodigious empire which 
stretched from sea to sea, comprehending both Bussia 
and China. 

"The Golden Horde." — In 1294, after the reign of 
Kubla Khan, the grandson of Zingis and a cousin of 
Baty, this empire fell to pieces. Yet the Khanate 
of Kiptchak, as the possessions won by Baty were 
named, continued to exist for two centuries. Of that 
khanate the whole of Bussia formed a part. Ample 
pasturage was found in the valley of the Volga, and there 
the dominant caste had scope enough for that nomadic 
life which they preferred. The genuine Tartar lived 
most of his time on horseback, deeming a house less 
desirable than a tent, and the person who was content to 
spend his days in it unworthy of his manhood. His 
favourite meat was horse-flesh. His favourite drink was 
mare's milk, from which he distilled a species of intoxi- 
cating liquor, called koumiss. His family dwelt in wag- 
gons or tents. At first their religion was a mixture of 
Buddhism and other forms of idolatry, with ideas derived 
from the fire-worship of Persia. They were, however, very 
tolerant. Christianity was treated with respect and impar- 
tiality. Some of the early khans were suspected of secretly 
favouring it. One of them has a place upon the calendar 
of saints in the Bussian Church. Even when, some 
sixty years later, the race accepted Mohammedanism, no 
change took place in the way they viewed the religion of 
those whom they held in thraldom. The scorn and hate 
which the adherents of the False Prophet came to cherish 



44 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. III. 

against the believers in Christ was not then fully ma- 
tured. It was of later origin and accidental cause. 
But whatever of courtesy and moderation prevailed in 
that regard, it had no effect in mitigating the rigour of 
the tyranny under which the Russians were held fast. 
It was arrogant, oppressive, exacting, and capricious. A 
vast tract of fertile soil had been turned into a desert. 
The inhabitants of the regions beyond were kept in a state 
of abject and constant terror. Did they refuse to pay 
the exorbitant taxes which were arbitrarily assessed and 
insolently enforced, they were menaced by a visit of their 
spoilers, with intent to make the levy at their own hand; 
and this threat was always efficacious, for the idea pre- 
vailed that in such a case resistance or resentment would 
be alike foolish. 

The Tartars did not interfere much with the frame- 
work of administration. So long as the machinery 
wrought in a manner that served their purpose, they 
were content to let it alone. Thus they preserved all the 
old divisions of separate provinces, and kept up the dis- 
tinction of Veliki ICneiz, or Grand Prince. With con- 
summate art, however, they contrived to foster emulation 
and variance among the different chiefs. They were 
especially careful to make it uncertain who should be 
exalted to the supreme dignity. This was an object of 
ambition to all. By dangling it before the eyes of each 
as an attainable prize, the perpetuation of mutual ill-will 
among them was ensured, while they were excited to a 
race of rivalship in the depth of servility to which they 
could stoop, and the amount of gifts they could offer. 
The humiliations to which the princes were subjected, 
when they were summoned to the camp of their suzerain, 
and when the khan or a representative visited them, 
were to the last degree mortifying and debasing. When 
a Tartar ambassador appeared at a native court, the 
prince had to spread a piece of sable fur under the hoofs 
of the envoy's steed, to receive on his knees the message 
which was brought, to present the messenger with a cup 
of mare'a milk, and to lick from his horse's neck any 



A.D. 1294.) ALEXANDER NEVSKY. 45 

drops that might have fallen thereon. Even the Grand 
Prince was expected to lead the horse through the streets, 
and to feed the beast with oats out of his royal cap. 
Reluctance or evasion was punished with remorseless 
severity. Several princes were put to death, and others 
had trial of cruel mockings and tortures. That such an 
extraordinary despotism should have been endured with 
patience for so loug a time counts among the marvels of 
history. 

Alexrnder Nevsky. — The condition of slavish depend- 
ence to which they had been reduced did, indeed, sorely 
gall both princes and people ; and from time to time 
there arose men who addressed themselves to the task of 
emancipation. The measure of success which attended 
their exertions was small, and what was achieved by one 
was always speedily undone. The first person who meets 
the eye, as standing erect amid the general debasement, 
is Prince Alexander Nevsky. In 1236, the year before 
the second Tartar invasion, when he was only seventeen 
years of age, he had been elected Prince of Novgorod. 
That free community were then much harassed by Danes, 
Swedes, and Finns. The Finns had been recently con- 
verted to Christianity, and now, with the zeal of prose- 
lytes, they joined the Swedes in an effort to bring ovei 
the Russians of the north from the Greek ritual to that 
of the Western church. Force was used to induce com- 
pliance. A Swedish fleet entered the Neva with intent 
to sail into Lake Ladoga, and to disembark an invading 
army in the heart of the Novgorod territory. They 
loitered by the way, left their ships in the river, and 
encamped upon its banks. Mustering a number of 
hastily-equipped troops, Alexander swept down upon them 
and put them utterly to the rout, a very small propor- 
tion of Swedes regaining their vessels. In commemora- 
tion of this great triumph, in gaining which he displayed 
much personal valour, the name of Nevsky was bestowed 
upon him. It was the first of many signal services to 
the principality. Soon afterwards the Livonian Knights 
-—an order of chivalry otherwise known as the Sword- 



46 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. III. 

bearers, whose habit was a white cloak with a red cross 
on the shoulder — essayed to do what the Swedes had 
been foiled in attempting. Under their guidance a 
strong force assailed the sister city of Novgorod, Pskof, 
built on the shores of Lake Pepius, and having taken it, 
advanced across the country to the capital. Trusting to its 
inhabitants being able to hold the foe in check, Alexander 
obtained reinforcements from Vladimir, retook Pskof, 
and attacked the rear of the invaders. They were thrown 
into confusion, and fell back in disorder. Be-collecting 
their forces, they were brought to bay at Lake Pepius, 
where, in the beginning of 124-2, a great battle was fought 
upon the ice. For a time the superior discipline of the 
Germans enabled them to make way ; but Alexander 
again circumvented them. While they were pressing 
right forward, their troops being massed in the form of a 
wedge, by a swift and skilful movement he planted a 
number of men on their flanks, whose onset carried all 
before them. The Livonians sustained an enormous loss, 
and for centuries the " Slaughter on the Ice" was coupled 
in popular fame with the " Battle of the Neva." A third 
time did Alexander drawthe sword in defence of Novgorod, 
and as:ain he wielded it successfully. The assailants were 
the Lithuanians, who, having slipped from under Rus- 
sian control, were anxious to turn the tables upon their 
former masters. The attempt was often renewed, but 
never was it more decisively defeated than on this first 
occasion. 

Tartar Supremacy — Heavy Taxes. — By such achieve- 
ments Alexander inspired the hope that he might redeem 
the fortunes of his country. Brave and successful as 
he had shown himself, however, he shrank from a trial of 
strength with the Tartars. Some modern historians have 
blamed his acquiescence in their domination; and a con- 
troversy has arisen as to whether he was actuated by 
a wise prudence, or a venal selfishness. Baty, hear- 
ing of his prowess, sent for him to Sarai, where he was 
received with respect and kindness. Prom Sarai he was 
sent on to the interior of Asia, where he became the 



A.D. 1294.] TARTAR IUPREMACY. 47 

guest of the Great Khan himself. There also lie wai 
treated with favour. What he saw may have impressed 
him with a consciousness of the invincible strength that 
belonged to the power with whom he had to deal. At 
any rate, ever afterwards he counselled submission to its 
authority. He set the example himself, though it cannot 
be said that he went without his reward. He was first 
made Prince of Kief, and then Grand Prince of Yladimir. 
At various times he had much ado to maintain quietness. 
His freedom-loving friends at Novgorod gave him most 
trouble. They had never come under Tartar occupa- 
tion, and were disposed to spurn every claim upon their 
homage. Baty's successor issued a decree, that, like the 
other Russians, they should be made amenable to a poll- 
tax. The angry resistance which this mandate roused, 
was such as Alexander could not appease. For one year 
its execution was delayed. In the interval Alexander 
persuaded the leading citizens to submission; but when 
he went back with the collectors the common people rose 
in tumult, vowing that they would not be numbered and 
taxed by accursed feeders on raw flesh. Not till he had 
left the city, warning the inhabitants of the fate they 
had provoked, did fear come upon them and a change of 
mind ensue. 

This subject of taxation, however, continued to be a 
cause of great anxiety. Very soon the Tartars found it 
too troublesome a business to levy the taxes directly, and 
so they were farmed out to merchants from distant Khiva, 
who employed a class of men called Baskaks to aid them 
in the work. The Hebrew publicans of old time were 
not loathed with a deeper loathing than these men. Of 
course they made the exactions heavier than before, til] 
at last the inhabitants began to refuse them as intolerable. 
In a number of towns all over the country payment was 
withheld, and the collectors were maltreated, killed, or 
sent empty away. Again, the anxious fears of Alexander 
were aroused. He hastened to Sarai with intent to 
appease the Khan, and to persuade him to overlook the 
offence. He succeeded in his mission; but it was his 



48 BISTORT OF RUSSIA. [CHA? III. 

last public service. On his return journey he was seized 
with sudden illness, which was very generally attributed 
to the effects of poison. Convinced that he was dying, 
he had himself conveyed to the nearest monastery, was 
admitted into its order, received the tonsure, and expired 
soon after he had been clad in the monastic habit. His 
death caused a great outburst of superstitious veneration. 
It was said to have been notified by a voice from heaven 
to the Metropolitan of Vladimir as he was serving at the 
altar. When announced to the populace, they set up an 
universal wail of " We are lost." His burial was attended 
by thousands. It was believed that when the prayer of 
absolution was read, his corpse opened and raised its 
hands as it lay in the coffin. More than four hundred 
years afterwards, his dust was shifted to St. Petersburg, 
where it was laid by the banks of the river whence he 
derived his name, and where a great monastery was raised 
in his honour by Peter the Great. 

Moscow becomes the Capital — " John of the Purse." 
— From Alexander's time the fortunes of Vladimir began 
to wane, and those of Moscow to rise. It was founded by 
Vladimir Monomachus, but for a long while it remained 
an obscure place. The youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, 
Prince Daniel, chose it for the capital of the small prin- 
cipality to which he was appointed, and in his time it 
made a considerable start in importance. Its progress 
was continued under his son Prince George, who greatly 
augmented the size of his dominion. He followed his 
grandfather's example in the maintenance of friendly 
relations with the Tartars. For several years he lived 
among them, so ingratiating himself with the Khan 
Usback, as to win his consent to a marriage with his 
•ister, and to receive the dignity of Grand Prince, in 
which office Prince Michael of Tver was superseded. 
This change gave rise to a feud which cost the lives of 
both the principals, and was continued with fatal results 
to several of their descendants. Still, the influence of 
Moscow continued to increase. It did so especially 
during the long reign of Prince George's brother and 



A.D. 1362-1389.] DIM1TRF D0NSK01, 4$ 

successor Ivan, surnamed Kalita, that is, Ivan of the 
Purse. Tradition says he got the name, because, when- 
ever he went abroad, he carried a money-bag, whence he 
gave alms to the poor with great liberality. The historian 
Bestujef Riamin thinks the designation arose from his 
reform of the coinage. The probability is that it came 
from the thrifty care with which he managed to keep a 
full treasury, conjoined with the free manner in which 
he spent his means when he saw an object worth a large 
outlay. Ivan was, indeed, a very astute person. From 
the first he adopted a policy of territorial aggrandisement, 
and very cunningly did he advance it on to large results. 
He used force against his rival the Prince of Tver, and 
thus annexed that territory to his own. He flattered 
the Metropolitan into becoming his tool, and induced him 
to leave Vladimir for Moscow, as his predecessors had 
left Kief for Vladimir. He acquired the right of levying 
the Tartar taxes, as a Tartar agent, and while he thus 
enhanced his importance he also replenished his exchequer. 
All through he played off Russ against Tartar, and Tartar 
against Russ with consummate dexterity, extending his 
power over his countrymen by dint of Mongol authority, 
and preserving his influence at Sarai by aid of Russian 
gold. He died in 1340. 

Dimitry Donskoi (1362-1389). — He was succeeded 
first by his son Simeon, surnamed the Proud, whose arro- 
gance and stiffness did something to endanger his father's 
acquisitions, and then by another son, Ivan II., whose 
soft and yielding disposition would have done still more, 
had it not been for the powerful influence of the Metro- 
politan Alexis. He entered thoroughly into the policy 
of exalting Moscow to the headship of the other princi- 
palities, and did much to further it. When Dimitry, 
the son of the second Ivan, came to the throne, he had 
a long struggle to wage with certain of the other princes 
who chafed under his supremacy; but his relations with 
the Golden Horde were not of the abject kind to which 
his predecessors had stooped. He still paid tribute, it 
is true, but the payment was made upon condition that 



50 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. III. 

the Russians should be exempt from all acts of violent 
interference. When summoned to appear as a vassal at 
Sarai, he refused obedience; and it indicates how much 
the power or spirit of the Tartars had declined that his 
refusal was winked at. The immunity did not long con- 
tinue, however. In 1374, some disturbances in a pro- 
vincial town, accompanied by insults to the Tartar 
representatives, stirred up the Khan of the day, Mamai, 
to send north a force charged with the infliction of 
punishment. It was opposed, and some desultory fight- 
ing ensued, ending in the Tartars being defeated. The 
Khan was so incensed that he vowed he would wreak a 
revenge which would bring to Russian recollection what 
had been suffered at the hands of Baty. An enormous 
force was raised for the fulfilment of this sanguinary 
design. Dimitry on his side did not flinch. He had 
been accustomed to warfare, and hitherto he had been 
uniformly successful. All the princes who had opposed 
him at the beginning of his reign he had overcome, and 
the growing power of the Lithuanians, who ha,d made 
common cause with his hereditary antagonist, the Prince 
of Tver, he had three times met and checked in great 
battles. Therefore he was in nowise disconcerted by the 
peril which threatened him. His father's friend, the 
Metropolitan, entered with all the energy of a younger 
man into the arrangements for defence. He appealed, in 
the name alike of religion and of patriotism, to the other 
princes for aid against the foe of all. So influential were 
his exhortations and appeals, that a near approach to 
complete unity was established, only one prince, Oleg of 
Riazan, casting in his lot with the "Horde." 

The host at the head of which Dimitry marched south- 
ward, was the largest that had ever been collected on 
Russian soil. It is said to have numbered 150,0^0 men, 
well equipped and fairly organised. Even this was 
inferior to the bands of Tartars, with whom t^ere was 
a strong contingent of Lithuanians, who marched from 
Kief to effect a junction south of the Don. The two 
armies came in sight of each other across the strain. 



A.D. 1362-1389. j DIMITRY DONSKOI. 51 

The Russians were impatient for the attack. At first 
Dimitry was inclined to adopt the advice of the more 
cautious among his counsellors, who recommended the 
stoppage of his march. Moved, however, by the earnest- 
ness of his following, and by a message from the vener- 
able superior of the Troitsa monastery at Moscow, which 
was regarded as oracular, he gave the order to advance. 
When the passage was made the boats used in it were 
destroyed, that there might remain no choice between 
victory and death. The Tartars were drawn up on the 
great plain of Kulikovo. In the early morning a thick 
fog obscured the dispositions of the combatants, but ere 
noon it had cleared off, and the sun shone forth brightly. 
The battle was then joined, and for a long time the con- 
test was waged with great obstinacy. At last the Tartars 
began to gain the advantage. They pressed the Russians 
closer and closer, forcing them to give way. The retreat 
was likely to take on the character of a rout, when a 
sudden change was effected. The Russian reserve had 
been posted in a wood, out of sight, under the command 
of Dimitry 's cousin, Vladimir the Brave. Holding his 
men in hand till he had the pursuing Tartars fairly before 
him, he men burst upon them with resistless impetuosity. 
They staggered and gave way under this unexpected blow. 
The Russians then halted, rallied, and turned upon their 
adversaries. For a brief space they held their ground 
with much gallantry, but the ascendant had gone from 
them; in their turn they were forced upon flight; and as 
they ran thousands of them were slaughtered. The vic- 
tory was complete. From that day the name of Dimitry 
Donskoi was ranked with that of Alexander Nevsky in 
the Russian annals, as those of two men who alone during 
all the dreary period of Tartar domination signalised them- 
selves by their martial prowess. 

Overwhelming though the victory was, it did not pro- 
duce any great result. With the joy of a prodigious 
deliverance there came a dissolution of the strength by 
which the deliverance had been wrought. The victors did 
not pursue their triumph. They soon began to quarrel 



52 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. Ill 

with each other. The country was thus laid open to a 
fresh attack. In a short while that attack was made. 
Recovering themselves, the Tartars, in 1382, came on 
again with a tremendous force. Their invasion, which 
rolled on with an irresistible impetus, swept all before it, 
advancing as far as Moscow, whence Dimitry deemed it 
prudent to retire. His withdrawal has been very harshly 
judged of in late days, the idea being propounded that he 
played a cowardly part, and the conception of his character 
derived .from his conduct two years before being thus 
greatly modified in the way of disparagement. Moscow 
was desolated by fire and sword; and when Dimitry came 
back his first work was to bury some 24,000 corpses that 
were found in the ruins of his capital. 

The Tartar Decline. — This was the last of the Tartar 
inroads. Immediately afterwards the invaders became 
distracted by internecine disputes. Mamai, who was 
defeated by Dimitry at the Don, was succeeded by 
Tockhtamish, who ravaged Moscow. But Tockhtamish 
had the misfortune to incur the ill-will of the redoubted 
Tamerlane, who now took up the part of the great Zingis; 
and, although not dispossessed, he twice over was severely 
weakened and punished. Though weakened, however, 
his successors managed to retain their influence over 
Russia, and in the conflicts which took place alike between 
them and the great Khan, to whom they owed fealty, and 
between them and the Lithuanians, with whom they were 
frequently at war, the Russians suffered greatly. Their 
sufferings were intensified, no doubt, through the lack of 
headship which now prevailed. Moscow had come to 
be recognised as, in a sense, the chief of all the princi- 
palities, but its grand dukes were for years weak men, 
who addicted themselves to very cruel and violent pro- 
ceedings. Especially was this the case with Yassily L, 
the son of Dimitry. His claim to the throne was con- 
tested by his uncle, and a civil war ensued. Capturing 
that uncle's son, Vassily had his eyes put out. Soon 
after, a brother of the blinded man made a successful 
insurrection, captured Vassily himself, and did to him as 



A.D. 



1462-1505.] IVAN III. 53 



he had done to his cousin. The victor, another Dimitry, 
who gets the surname of Shemyaka, ruled for a little 
while; but ruled so badly that he was speedily displaced. 
From the monastery to which Vassily the Blind had been 
sent, he was brought forth to refill the throne. He 
did so with a wisdom, moderation, and sagacity such as 
he never displayed in his earlier years. No doubt many 
of his doings were savage. He had the man who dis- 
possessed him poisoned. He got rid of other relatives in 
a summary fashion. Yet he added largely to the extent 
of his exclusive dominion, conquering some adjacent prin- 
cipalities, serving himself heir to others in default of 
what he held to be a legitimate succession, and keeping 
them all in peace. In a word, he prepared the way for 
his grandson Ivan III., to whom belongs the title of 
Consolidator of the Russian empire. 

Ivan III. (1462-1505). — Ivan reigned for forty and 
three years. The time was one. of the most prosperous 
Russia has ever known. His character as a great ruler 
stands out in a light that defies all controversy. Yet he 
was in no respect a great man. Personally he was a poor 
creature — small, ill-favoured, almost repulsive, sadly 
nerveless and timid when confronted with any hazard 
that threatened himself. Morally he was even worse — 
mean, tricky, false, a consummate hypocrite, an out- 
rageous liar. Withal, he was a man who formed vast 
conceptions, which he pursued with rare sagacity, with 
marvellous patience, and with indomitable resolution, 
meekly accepting the buffets of adverse fortune, but 
never turning aside from his aims. In his time autocracy 
became almost supreme throughout Russia, while the 
country slipped from under the suzerainty of the Tartar 
horde. He took advantage of the dissensions which raged 
among them to form an alliance with one set, headed by 
the Khan of the Crimea; to declare war against another 
set, headed by the Khan of Kazan; and to postpone or 
evade for a series of years payment of the tribute which 
was due from him at Sarai. When his incensed over- 
lord awoke to a discernment of all that was meant by his 



54 HISTORY O* RUSSIA. [CHAP. III. 

delays, excuses, and protestations, a huge army was at 
once set in motion for the purpose of bringing him to 
submission. Tvan behaved in a very craven fashion. He 
made numerous alliances. He collected a large opposing 
force. He vapoured about what he was to accomplish. 
Notwithstanding, he did not care to abide the onset of his 
foe. Retreating to a safe place he sued for peace, pro- 
mising almost any terms the adversary cared to impose. 
That he was serious in his proposals can scarcely be 
doubted. Nevertheless when his ally, the Crimean Khan, 
fell upon the rear of the invader, subjecting him to utter 
discomfiture, he put forward the representation that all 
he had done was merely a device to gain time, and so 
that he was the true contriver of the happy issue. Such 
was the influence of the man that the story obtained 
credence, and he was forthwith hailed as the deliverer from 
Tartar bondage. That no more tribute was paid is true; 
but every student of history must be aware that Ivan 
would have had no qualms about paying any amount, 
provided he could not otherwise help himself. In com- 
memoration of this achievement, he assumed the title of 
" Tsar" in his communications with foreign potentates, 
though at home he was content to be known by his old 
designation of Grand Duke. The word " Tsar," it may 
be explained, is not, as it is commonly supposed to be, a 
corruption of Caesar. It is a Persian term indicative of 
supreme authority. 

Ivan took for his second wife Sophia, the niece of the 
last Palseologus who reigned at Constantinople. When 
Byzantium fell into the hands of the Turks she fled for 
refuge to Rome. Her marriage to Ivan was suggested 
by a learned Greek, Cardinal Bessarion, and was ardently 
promoted by Pope Paul II., with the two- fold object of 
bringing about an union of the Russian church with that 
of Rome, and getting Muscovite aid for rescuing Con- 
stantinople from the possession of the infidel. The first 
object failed, for Sophia, instead of bringing her husband 
over to the Roman faith, herself underwent a re-conver- 
sion to his. But she did introduce western influences to 



A.D. 1462-1505.] "THE GOLDEN HORDE." 55 

a large extent, and powerfully helped in building up the 
fabric of empire. Embassies from Germany, Venice, the 
Papal States, and other distant parts of Europe were seen 
for the first time at Moscow; learned foreigners were 
induced to settle there; the Russian money was re-coined; 
gunpowder was manufactured, and cannon were cast; in 
short, a decided advance was made in all the arts of 
civilization, whether beneficent or destructive. 

The Fall of " the Golden Horde." — At the same time 
the power of the Golden Horde was broken. Their dissen- 
sions prevented them from making any decisive effort to 
recover their lost supremacy. One ineffectual endeavour 
was put forth, and after its failure all relapsed into power- 
lessness and vanity. Split into fragments, each fragment 
gradually drew itself off, leaving only what had no close 
adhesion to the main mass. That the ties which induced 
many people to stop were numerous and strong can hardly 
be doubted ; two centuries of occupation could not have 
passed without causing, all along the border-line, a great 
intermixture of races. That they were not so numerous 
or strong as to warrant the well-known assertion of 
Napoleon, " Scrape the Russian and you will find a 
Tartar," is also certain, for singularly few traces of the 
long domination can be discerned in the habits of the 
people, or ever were discernible. The whole period, 
indeed, seems to have suffered an effacement such as is 
almost unparalleled in history. Even the Tartar capital 
disappeared from the face of the earth. It was sacked, 
burned, and left desolate. So complete were the ruin 
and the desolation that its site was long unknown. In 
its day of pride, about the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, it was described as a great, beautiful, and populous 
place, possessing broad streets, stately fanes for worship, 
and fine market buildings, wherein were to be found 
merchants from Syria, Egypt, Babylon, and many other 
places. For centuries not a vestige of it could be dis- 
covered. In 1840 an engineer, who was mapping the 
country whereon it was reputed to have stood, came upon 
certain " ground-swells," which struck him as being very 



56 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. HI. 

peculiar. He ordered excavations to be made, and thus 
struck upon the ruins of the buried city. By and by its 
whole plan was disclosed. The khan's palace was un- 
covered — a very sumptuous building. The Russian 
quarter was found, recognisable not only by the mean- 
ness of its dwellings, but by the remains of what; had 
plainly been a Christian church. And a great aqueduct 
was laid bare, which once brought for miles into the city 
the waters of a lake which had become a til thy marsh. 
The extinction of Sarai is strikingly typical of the fate 
which befell the power by whom it was built and peopled. 
Whatever remains of Tartar influence is matter of inves- 
tigation by the ethnologist and the geographer. It has 
no place among things that are cognisable by ordinary 
men. 

Vassily III. (1505-1534). — Of course the process of 
withdrawal and extinction took time for its accom- 
plishment. It was hardly completed thirty years after 
Ivan's death, when his son, Vassily III., ceased to reign. 
Vassily was a strong and firm ruler. In his day Russia 
made great progress. He followed up with marked suc- 
cess the course of policy his father had pursued. No 
striking event illustrates the period of his administration, 
yet at its close the country was indisputably stronger, 
more compact, more prosperous, than at its commence- 
ment. The power of the rival princes was then com- 
pletely overthrown. The last of those semi-independent 
appanages, the possessor of which had a reserved right to 
the grand dukedom, was annexed. At the same time the 
like fate befell the municipalities of Novgorod and Pskof ; 
partly through intrigue and partly by force, the liberties of 
which they were so proud were destroyed. Within an 
extensive circle autocracy was now supreme. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TSARDOM THE REIGN OP IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 

Ivan IV. (1534-1581). — It must be admitted that, on 
the death of Vassily, the prospect that the system of rule he 
had established would have any continuance, was clouded 
by a great uncertainty. He had suffered domestic 
troubles. He got rid of his first wife, not without a 
resort to harsh and unjustifiable measures. His son by 
his second wife was, when he died, only an infant. The 
mother, who became regent, was a very unfit person to 
have charge of a lad upon whom, it seemed, that such a 
responsibility as awaited him would devolve. Happily, 
or unhappily, she also died when he was very young. 
The government then fell into the hands of a council of 
Boyards, whose self-seeking dissensions threw the country 
into great disorder. Every man was for himself, and 
outside enemies strove as they could to take avail of the 
opportunity. Prominent among them were the Lithu- 
anians, now united with the Poles, whose demonstrations 
became more formidable, and also more successful, than 
they ever had been since the days of Alexander Nevsky. 
But the managing council cared for few of these things. 
So long as they could keep power in their own hands, 
and keep down alike the inquisitiveness of their ward 
and the discontent of the people, they were satisfied. In 
both instances it was a difficult task. It was especially 
difficult in the case of the young man they had to tutor, 
for Ivan IV. — Ivan the Terrible, as he came to be justly 
called — was endowed with faculties which made him 
dangerous to deal with. 

The manner in which his guardians dealt with him 



68 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IV. 

was most unwise. His natural disposition was cruel. 
It was his delight to torture domestic animals, to ride 
over old women, to indulge in all manner of wild freaks. 
This disposition was encouraged, as a method of diversion 
from more serious pursuits. The calculation was that so 
long as he was thus employed, and took delight in the 
employment, he would have no leisure or inclination for 
other concerns. In this the calculators reckoned wrongly. 
Ivan soon learned to see through the policy that was 
favoured. He detected that both he, and the nation 
over whom he was the nominal head, were really the 
slaves of a despotic oligarchy. He resolved to emanci- 
pate himself. Perhaps it is not wholly his fault that in 
working out this resolution he became the originator and 
instrument of a tyranny more remarkable than has ever 
been seen on European soil. Its cardinal idea was that 
of complete absolutism. He hated, even when he did not 
fear, every one who claimed any participation in the 
exercise of sovereign power. At the early age of four- 
teen he showed his temper unmistakeably. Prince Sho- 
visky was the president of the council, and the man with 
whom the boy-prince was most familiar. But it was 
ascertained that Shovisky had quarrelled with some of 
his colleagues, that a cabal had been got up against him, 
and that he was left in a minority. The victors had the 
wit to know how Ivan could be moved to their side. He 
took up the cause gleefully. Without trial, without 
accusation, without warning of any sort, a lot of fierce 
dogs were let slip upon the unfortunate man at a signal 
given from the prince, and he was worried in the public 
streets in broad day. 

His Good Years. — The people who thus gained the 
ascendancy abused it even more deplorably than their 
predecessors had done. The young prince was encouraged 
to the top of his bent in all his wild and violent courses. 
No sort of restraint was imposed upon him. He became 
almost as notable for his capriciousness as for his cruelty. 
It was impossible to guess what mood of mind he might 
indulge or affect for any length of time; but in all moods 



A.D. 1534-1581.] REIGN OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 69 

he was ungovernable, and his delights were uniformly 
treacherous and malevolent. The records of biography 
will be searched in vain for any example of a life like 
that he led during the period of his teens, though its 
counterpart exists in the still more revolting narrative of 
his old age. In 1546, before he had reached his twentieth 
year, he was crowned as Tsar of all the Russias, a title 
ever afterwards used at home, as well as in relations 
with foreign courts. Soon after he was married, his con- 
sort being An astasia Romanoff, whose meek and gentle 
nature was in strongest contrast to his. For a brief space 
he continued his career of outrageous license, and then 
there came a sudden check and an entire change. Popular 
discontent had become irrepressible. Moscow had been 
repeatedly set on fire. One night Ivan was roused from 
sleep to find his palace in a blaze, and to hear himself 
made the object of most dreadful curses by the infuriated 
multitudes. He was stricken by fright and compunction. 
At this juncture a wandering monk named Sylvester 
made his way to the room where the monarch was, and 
addressed h«'m in the language of sternest rebuke, de- 
nouncing ajxm him the vengeance of Heaven, here and 
hereafter, unless his evil doings were repented of and 
forsaken. In an access of awe, humility, and devotion he 
fell upon his knees and fervently promised obedience. 
For thirteen years the promise was kept. The fear that 
prompted it was reinforced by the love he cherished for 
his wife. While Sylvester and Anastasia lived he so 
acted as to win the confidence and attachment of his 
people to a remarkable degree. Indefatigable in dis- 
charging the duties of his office, he showed himself wise, 
clement, and generous. He drew around him as coun- 
sellors men who were prudent and upright. Taxation 
was revised and mitigated, the payment of the army 
being put on a better footing, while judges and governors 
were no longer permitted to remunerate themselves as 
they chose, but received salaries which were the product 
of a general assessment. Commerce was promoted, the 
town of Archangel being founded, and the northern parts 



60 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IV. 

of the empire being laid open to mercantile intercourse. 
The liberal arts were encouraged, letterpress printing 
being introduced, while, by permission of Obarles V., 
architects, painters, and various persons of learning and 
skill were brought to the capital. At the same time a 
company of Russian merchants was formed in London, 
and numerous English factories were established on the 
shores of the White Sea. Withal, the boundaries of the 
empire were greatly extended. The territory of Kazan 
was conquered and annexed, the mosques being turned 
into Christian temples, and a large number of emigrants 
sent forward to take possession of that rich country. By 
the conquest of Astracan access was obtained to the trade 
of the Caspian, and another fertile province was added 
to the Russian dominions. Soon after Siberia, which had 
been discovered by an enterprising fur merchant and 
overrun by a Cossack adventurer, was settled in its 
habitable parts, garrisoned, and incorporated with the 
adjacent territory. All this middle period of the Czar's 
life was a time of contentment and prosperity. 

His Later Life. — It ended in 1560. Anastasia died 
in that vear. At once the slumbering demon which 
lodged in Ivan's breast was aroused. He plunged almost 
forthwith into the most appalling excesses of sensuality 
and carnage, alternating them with fits of what he named 
piety. That he became mad, in the medical sense, is the 
only rational conjecture that will apply to his conduct ; 
but it is extraordinary that, all through, there was a 
method in his madness, that he always evinced a shrewd 
knack of venting his rage where it was most politic, and 
that in his wildest paroxysms of fury he could arrest 
himself in a moment, exchanging the whirlwind and 
tempest of passion for a calm that was even more alarm- 
ing. He began by dismissing the counsellors to whom 
he had been indebted, replacing them by more congenial 
and pliant tools. Any remonstrance against the new 
departure he had taken was followed by immediate ven- 
geance. Such remonstrances were offered, and those who 
did so were, along with their friends and partisans, put 



A.D. 1534-1581.] REVOLT Of PRJNCE KURBSKY. 61 

to death, imprisoned, or exiled. One prince, who had 
dared to disparage a worthless favourite, was stabbed by 
Ivan himself. Another, who refused to take part in 
some lascivious diversion, was poignarded in church. 
Death was the common penalty wherever an unquestion- 
ing obedience was not rendered to every whim. Many 
were killed on the mere suspicion that they intended to 
disobey ; and the sanguinary tyrant complained that his 
victims were too few. 

Revolt of Prince Kurbsky. — Disaffection spread ra- 
pidly among the nobles, who found a leader in Prince 
Andrew Kurbsky, a person who had rendered signal ser- 
vice to his country, alike in the cabinet and in the field. 
Ivan divined what was going forward, and took measures 
to have the prince seized. He was timeously warned, 
and made his escape to Lithuania, where he joined king 
Sigismund in an invasion of Russia. No sooner was he 
across the border than he sent back a confidential servant 
with a letter to Ivan, in which his iniquities were re- 
counted with unsparing force and minuteness, and the 
question was put to him, what answer he could give when 
he met the spirits of those he had murdered before the 
throne of God 1 If the messenger who conveyed this 
epistle had any inkling of its contents, he must have been 
a bold man to fulfil his mission. When Ivan had read 
it he lifted an iron rod he was accustomed to carry where- 
ever he went, and set upon him with such severity as to 
make blood flow. He then addressed himself to the task 
of penning a reply. He was very proud of his powers 
as a correspondent. The production he indited on this 
occasion is not a whit more extraordinary than others that 
have been preserved. He began in this strain : " In the 
name of the all-powerful God, the master of our being and 
actions, by whom kings reign and the mighty speak, the 
humble and Christian-like answer to the Russian ex- 
boyard, our counsellor and voyrod, Prince Andrew 
Kurbsky, — Why, thou wretch, dost thou destroy thy 
traitor- soul in saving by flight thy worthless body 1 If 
thou art truly just and virtuous, why not die by thy 



62 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IV. 

master's hand, and thereby obtain the martyr's crown? 
What is life 1 What are worldly riches and honours 1 
Vanity ! a shadow. Happy is he to whom death brings 
salvation ! " He proceeds to controvert Kurbsky's charges, 
characterising some of them as " impudent lies," declar- 
ing that he was severe against traitors only, and asking 
" who ever spared them 1 ? Did not Constantine the Great 
sacrifice his own son 1 " The conclusion was as follows — 
"Thou threatenest me with the judgment of Christ in 
the other world. Dost thou then believe that the Divine 
power does not regulate things here below 1 Manichean 
heresy ! According to you God reigns in heaven, Satan 
in hell, and men on earth. All error ! falsehood ! The 
power of God is everywhere, both in this life and the 
next. Thou tellest me I shall never again see thy Ethiop 
face. Heavens ! what a misfortune ! Thou surroundest 
the throne of the Highest with those whom I have put 
to death. A new heresy ! No one, says the apostle, can 
see God. But I am silent, for Solomon forbids us to 
waste words with fools like thee." 

Resignation of the Throne. — Kurbsky's revolt did not 
prove very formidable, but Ivan now became the prey of 
ceaseless alarms and suspicions. He was tormented by 
the apprehension that the nobles and the clergy were 
in league to compass his downfall. As against them he 
took a singular mode of appealing to the people. Among 
the lower orders he long had a sort of popularity. They 
liked him as the Romans liked Nero, as the Spaniards 
liked Ferdinand VII., as the English liked Henry VIII. 
They had suffered much at the hands of the nobility, and 
the curtailment of their power was not a thing to excite 
regret. The government of one tyrant, however oppres- 
sive, was more tolerable than the government of many. 
Conscious that such a feeling prevailed, Ivan resolved on 
putting it to the test and turning it to account. After 
attending divine service with unusual pomp and formality, 
he suddenly left Moscow, and for a month nothing was 
heard of him. Then two letters were received, one 
addressed to the metropolitan, the other to the inhabitants 



A.D. 1534-1581.] RESIGNATION OP THE THRONE. 63 

generally. In the first he represented that such disturb- 
ances as had afflicted and distracted the country in the 
early part of his reign were obviously being fostered anew; 
he complained that his desire to repress them had been 
thwarted by Athanasius, the metropolitan, and by the 
clergy; and he announced that therefore he had deter- 
mined upon relinquishing the task of government. In 
the second he made the same announcement, coupling it, 
however, with an assurance that he had no reason to 
complain of the people, and that they possessed his affec- 
tionate good-will. 

The consequence he had calculated upon was speedily 
realised. A vision of hapless anarchy rose before the 
thoughts of the multitude. Their superstitious venera- 
tion for the chief of the state was excited to unusual 
intensity. The remembrance of the prosperity they had 
enjoyed for many years came back upon them. It seemed 
a probability that Ivan might be in the right, for did not 
his knowledge far exceed theirs 1 Agitated by such feel- 
ings they cried out that, unless he returned, they were 
undone. " What are sheep without a shepherd?" they 
inquired. Then the resolution found a voice — " The 
state cannot remain without a head, and we will acknow- 
ledge none but him whom God has given us." " Let him 
punish all who deserve it," was added ; " has he not the 
power of life and death?" The feeling grew till a depu- 
tation of nobles and prelates were forced into the accept- 
ance of a mission to Alexandrovsky, whither Ivan had 
gone, beseeching him to return upon his own terms. At 
first he refused, thereby drawing forth such urgency of 
persuasion, on the score alike of religion and the interests 
of the commonwealth, that his reluctance was overcome. 
This consent proceeded upon an explicit pledge that the 
clergy were not to interfere with his treatment of persons 
who were plotting evil to the state, as well as the de- 
struction of himself and his family. 

A Restoration and a Reign of Terror. — He soon fol- 
lowed the dej uties back to Moscow. The inhabitants 
scarcely knew him, so changed was his appearance. His 



64 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [OHAP. IT 

frame had shrunk, his visage was dark, his eye had lost 
its lustre, and he had become both bald and beardless 
These outward changes were the concomitants of a more 
resolute sulleuness and ferocity than he had before dis- 
played. He addressed the people at great length. In 
his harangue he expatiated on the vanity of human 
greatness, and on the responsibilities of rulers. For 
himself he said ambition was dead within him, but he 
recognised the necessity of preserving peace by timely 
precautions against men who were factious and criminal. 
For this purpose he had to suggest the establishment of a 
new body-guard, to consist of a thousand well-born men, 
who should be embodied in a select legion. The sug- 
gestion was eagerly assented to, and thus originated the 
formidable corps that came to be known the as Strelitzes. 
Instead of one thousand men, six thousand were at once 
enrolled, while, far from being taken from the ranks of 
the well-born, they were largely recruited by the most 
infamous of the people. Ivan gave orders that each 
should carry at his saddle-bow a dog's head and a broom 
He intended thus to denote that they swept Russia and 
worried his enemies. This mission they discharged in 
a manner that merited his favour. Th«iy plundered and 
oppressed with impunity. Their word was evidence 
for any accusation they might a'llege ; and when a rich 
man's goods were confiscated they shared in the spoil. 
They speedily became the objects of universal dread and 
execration. 

From the day that Ivan reassumed the throne, a reign 
of terror, which continually grew more frightful, was set 
up. The butcheries he caused to be enacted were appal- 
ling, by reason alike of their number and of their atrocious 
character. Every species of torture that a malicious 
ingenuity could devise was brought into use. Princes 
and boyards were destroyed in crowds at a time, some by 
fire, some by the headsman, some by impalement, while 
such varieties of outrage as causing a victim to be drenched 
alternately by freezing and by boiling water, were cojd- 
mon. Ladies were often stripped naked and exhibited fcc 



ID. 1534-1581.] A REIGN OF TEfiROB. 65 

the populace before being slaughtered. At this odious 
form of cruelty the monster who ordered the sentence 
was generally present. Indeed, he made it a point to 
attend every great execution, his delight in giving the 
sentence being exceeded by his pleasure in seeing it car- 
ried through. How the indescribable horrors of which 
he was the author could have been patiently borne, sur- 
passes all conception. People of every grade seem to 
have been terrorised into abject submission. " It is the 
will of God and the Tsar," was the exclamation which 
covered the acceptance of each new atrocity. Meanwhile 
not only did increase of appetite for blood grow upon the 
tyrant's part, but there came to him a reasonable convic- 
tion that it would be unsafe and impossible for him to 
stop in his career. He was haunted by a dread of trea- 
chery, which prompted from time to time the sacrifice of 
fresh victims in larger numbers. Then he would devote 
himself to a bout of riotous sensuality, in the course of 
which outrageous profligacy was substituted for the 
excitements of massacre and revenge. For weeks there- 
after he might addict himself to a life of moroseness and 
austerity, rising early, praying much, fasting often, and 
doing menial offices with his own hand. Afraid to live 
in the magnificent palace at Moscow, he had a gloomy 
fortress built for his own occupation outside the walls of 
the Kremlin. Tormented by a sense of danger there, he 
then fixed his usual residence at Alexandrovsky, where 
he had the country for miles round carefully guarded. 
Here it was his humour often to play a religious life. 
The palace was made a monastery, three hundred of his 
most depraved legionaries were called monks, himself he 
dubbed abbot, and it need hardly be said his rule was 
very strict. Especially were the dungeons kept well 
filled; and it was his custom of an afternoon to relieve 
the tedium of existence by descending to them in order 
to witness their inmates put to the torture. 

From his retirement this precious saint likewise sent 
forth some of his most terrific mandates. Whole cities 
were devoted to destruction on the most trifling pretexts. 

£ 



66 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IV. 

So it was in the case of Torjek : some of the inhabitants 
having quarrelled with the Strelitzes, the population 
were declared rebels, and put to the sword. So it was 
at Kolomna : most of the people were dependants of 
an obnoxious noble, and all of them shared his fate. 
But the most ruthless and memorable deed of blood 
which can be laid even to Ivan's charge, is his visitation 
of Novgorod. The inhabitants of that famous city had 
evinced some symptoms of their old passion for independ- 
ence. Ivan did not like their restiveness, and resolved 
that it must be curbed and punished. Whether by col- 
lusion or by accident, he soon found the occasion he 
wished. A vagabond from Volhynia, who was all his 
life a cunning scamp, had been punished for alleged 
crimes by the authorities of the city. He resolved upon 
revenge, and may have been instigated to the method he 
took in order to secure it by the influence of those above 
him. The plan he chose was to write a letter in the 
name of the archbishop, the governor, and the principal 
authorities, to the king of Poland, offering to put them- 
selves under his protection, and asking him to come and 
relieve them from an intolerable bondage. A copy of this 
letter he hid behind an image of the Virgin in the church 
of St. Sophia. He then went to Moscow with a terrible 
tale of conspiracy and rebellion. When put to the ques- 
tion about it he hinted where the evidence was to be got. 
Those who hide are usually able to find ; and the con- 
fidential servant who was sent with the informer was at 
once guided to the place where the treasonable document 
was concealed. Upon the evidence thus procured Ivan 
acted promptly. The condemnation of the whole city 
was pronounced, and in its fulfilment many other cities 
were desolated. 

The Sack of Novgorod. — In December, 1569, the Tsar 
left Alexandrovsky, accompanied by his sons and his 
favourite legion, in order to execute the vengeance he 
had decreed. On his way he exterminated the popula- 
tion of Klin, in the province of Tver. Next, the chief 
city of that province, also named Tver, was destroyed, 



A.D. 1534-1581.] THE SACK OF NOVGOROD. 67 

There the man who had succeeded Athanasius as metro- 
politan was confined as a prisoner. He had been brought 
from the bishopric of an island in the White Sea to hold 
the first place in the Russian church. Ivan had imagined 
that he would prove an obsequious instrument. Instead, 
he turned out a stern reprover. The expostulations of 
Athanasius were mild in comparison with the severity of 
Philip's deprecations and remonstrances, and these the 
monarch could not brook. He was therefore taken from 
his see and thrown into a dungeon at Tver. No sooner 
had the troops entered the place than Skutarof, a 
confidant and favourite of the emperor, who held the 
office of sacristan at Alexandrovsky, repaired to the 
cell in which the good prelate was immured, and there 
strangled him. Even the awfulness of the crimes per- 
petrated throughout the city lost, in the popular estima- 
tion, something of its blackness when compared with 
this evil deed, which did not at once become known. 
That Ivan approved it is certain; that he regretted he 
was not a witness may be presumed; but he had prudence 
enough to insist upon secrecy for a while. 

From Tver he proceeded onwards to Novgorod. On 
the 2nd of January he was at Ilmen. That city was 
sacked. There was a suspicion that the treasures of its 
monastery had not been got at. Therefore the monks 
were ordered to produce twenty roubles each, and those 
who could not were flogged. The same plan was followed 
at Godroditche, a town near the ill-fated capital. At 
length, upon the 8th of January, Novgorod was reached. 
Ivan was met on the bridge by a procession of clergy, 
headed by the archbishop, having with him certain mira- 
culous images belonging to the place. The ecclesiastic 
gave the monarch welcome, and offered to pronounce 
over him the customary benediction. The offer was 
spurned, and the offerer was treated to a tedious harangue, 
abounding in malediction and anathema. Suddenly the 
rush of invective was stayed, and the orator proposed an 
adjournment to the cathedral of St. Sophia. There he 
heard mass ; then he prayed for a long time in private 



68 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IV. 

with great apparent fervour; and when he had risen from 
his knees he announced that he would accept the arch- 
bishop's hospitality. With his chief following he went 
to the episcopal palace, where a great banquet had been 
prepared for them. They had not been seated long when 
Ivan uttered a wild shout, upon hearing which a host of 
his satellites rushed in, seized the entertainer, his officers, 
and servants, and proceeded to pillage the palace and 
cloisters. 

This was the beginning of sorrows. For five weeks 
the city was made the scene of murder and pillage. Day 
by day from five hundred to a thousand of its inhabitants 
were brought forth to die. Their doom was inflicted in 
divers modes: some were shot; some were hacked and 
mangled by the sword; some were smeared over by in- 
flammable materials and then set on fire; some were tied 
to sledges, were dragged through the streets to the bridge 
over the Volkhof, and were thence thrust into the stream, 
while soldiers, armed with lances or hatchets, were placed 
to prevent any of them from swimming to the side. To 
this day it is a belief among the common people that the 
reason why the river at that place does not freeze, even 
in the most severe winters, is because of the blood shed 
then and there. To this day a huge mound near one of 
the Novgorod churches is pointed out as the burial-place 
of Ivan's victims, the common idea being that it is a heap 
of bones. At last the progress of devastation and mas- 
sacre was stayed. The place had been despoiled of every- 
thing that was valuable, and one-half its inhabitants had 
been slaughtered, when Ivan condescended to pardon 
those whom he had left alive. He commanded them to 
appear before him. They assembled, a pale and ghastly 
crew, worn out with fright and despair, wholly uncertain 
as to what was intended to befall. They were addressed 
in mild and unctuous phrase, were told all that had hap- 
pened was for their good, were exhorted to pray that 
their benefactor might have a long and happy reign, and 
then were graciously bidden adieu. The solemn derision 
which was thus used to crown an awful tragedy was in 



A.D. 1534-1581.] MURDER OF THE TSAROVITCH. 69 

Borne respects even more hideous than the tragedy itself. 
Nothing could have so sho vn the hardness and perversity 
of heart which distinguished its author. It is computed 
that sixty thousand persons perished in this massacre, 
which extinguished the glory and greatness of Novgorod. 

From Novgorod Ivan went to Pskof. Its panic-stricken 
inhabitants naturally imagined that it would be desolated 
like its neighbour city. Their fears turned out erroneous. 
Accounts differ as to the causes which prompted the 
tyrant to hold his hand. The one most generally received 
imputes his mercy to no scruples of conscience, or com- 
punctuous visitings of nature, but to a superstitious 
dread. Outside the place he was met by an impostor or 
magician, who is described by Sir Jerome Horsey, an 
Englishman then resident at the court, as "a fowll crea- 
ture, who went naked both in winter and sommer; he 
indure(fc"both extreame frost and heat, and did many 
streinge things thorow the magicall illusions of the Divell." 
This uncouth being accosted the Tzar, offering him a bit 
of raw flesh to eat. The proffer was declined, with the 
remark, " I am a Christian, and eat no flesh during a 
fast." "But thou doest worse," was the response, "thou 
dost eat the flesh of men," and this observation was fol- 
lowed by a threat of dire calamities should he dare to 
injure the people of Pskof. The affrighted monarch with- 
drew, though not without plundering the richest houses 
in the city. 

Murder of the Tsarovitch. — Time would fail to reca- 
pitulate with any minuteness a tithe of the terrible enor- 
mities perpetrated by this crowned miscreant. The climax 
of his wickedness was reached in the murder of his son. 
The lad was a high-spirited youth, bold and dignified, if 
also cruel and licentious. His wife had been abused 
by his father, and a remonstrance on his part led to a 
quarrel. Before a reconciliation was completed, he asked 
to be put in command of some troops that had been col- 
lected to repel one of the constant Polish invasions. The 
request awakened the old man's anger and suspicion. 
"Rebel!" he exclaimed, "thou wishest to dethrone me." 



70 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IV. 

Then lifting the iron rod, he inflicted upon his unresisting 
victim blow after blow till he fell to the ground bleeding 
profusely. At once Ivan's fury was allayed. In a little 
while his paroxysm of rage was succeeded by one of 
remorse and despair. He fell upon the body of the lad, 
kissed him, fondled him, at one moment besought his 
pardon, with an abject humility, the next cursed the 
surgeons, who would not do as he wished, and anon fran- 
tically implored God for mercy. " I die an obedient son 
and a faithful subject," quoth the lad four days later to 
his father, who had never left him; and so saying he 
expired. 

The Death of Ivan. — From this time onwards the 
monarch's fits of mental anguish became more frequent 
and severe. So touched was he even in his lifetime by the 
gnawings of the worm that never dies, so excited by the 
awful representations of an alarmed fancy, that he often 
rose in the middle of the night, knocked his head against 
the walls of his chamber, or threw himself on the floor, 
uttering the most frightful yells and imprecations. At 
length in the winter of 1 580, his strength began visibly to 
decline. In the following March he became dangerously 
ill. His illness in nowise altered his character, save by 
rendering it more capricious. At one time he would 
give astute directions for the government of the realm 
after his decease, counselling a diminution of the taxes, 
and the maintenance of peace. At another he would 
gloat over the treasures he had amassed, feasting his 
eyes upon his diamonds and jewels. Even on his death- 
bed he attempted the chastity of his daughter-in-law who 
was waiting upon him. A few months before he had 
sought Queen Elizabeth of England for his eighth wife, 
and later his ambassador tried to induce Lady Mary 
Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon's daughter, to accept 
that honour. At one time he would direct the liberation 
of all prisoners, save those confined for capital offences. 
At another he would order some unlucky wretch who 
had incurred his displeasure to be tortured. One of these 
was a physician, Eliseus Bomclius. Sir Jerome Horsey 



A.D. 1534-1581.] DEATH OP IVAN. 71 

tells how he was racked : " His armes drawen back, dis- 
jointed, and his leggs streiched from his middle loynes, 
his backe and bodie cutt with wyer whipps," after which 
he was bound to a stake, and " rosted and scorched till 
they thought noe life in him." Then he was put on a 
sledge, and brought through the castle, where Horsey 
saw him. " He cast up his eyes naminge Christ," and 
was then thrown into a dungeon to die. Ivan's premo- 
nitions of his own approaching death were confirmed by 
some astrologers whom he consulted. Nevertheless he 
caused them to be warned, that if they breathed a syllable 
on the subject, he would have them roasted alive, and he 
ordered them to be kept in confinement till the day they 
had named. When it came he had a warm bath in the 
morning, and was much refreshed by it. " Go," said he 
to Prince Belsky, "and order those astrologers to be put 
to death; according to them this is my dying day, and 
yet I feel stronger and better." " Wait," replied the 
intended victims, "for the setting of the sun." In the 
afternoon he called for a chess-board, and sat up in bed 
to play with Belsky. He arranged his pieces, " all savinge 
the king," we are told, " which by no means he could 
make stand on the plain board." While thus employed 
he suddenly fainted, fell backward, and closed his eyes 
for ever, so ridding the world of a tyrant whose crimes 
against freedom and morals surpassed those of a Nero or 
a Caligula, while his cruelty, his cunning, and his con- 
temptible meanness find but a faint parallel in Louis XI. 
of France. 

The later years of his reign were unfortunate for his 
country. Twice was it invaded by the Crimean Tartars, 
who, in 1571, advanced to Moscow, which they laid in 
ashe.g — Ivan, instead of encountering them with the 
falo'ar he displayed in his early years, retiring to a safe 
distance to await their withdrawal. The Poles made 
frequent incursions, in which they were generally success- 
ful, "though the Tsar contrived to neutralise the effect of 
their victories. One method he adopted was to get Pope 
Gregory XIII. to mediate in his behalf. This he acconi 



72 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IT. 

plished by professing a desire to be instructed in the 
Romish faith. A monk named Possevin was despatched 
to be bis tutor. He fared badly. In the course of their 
many interviews, Ivan always started off into denuncia- 
tions of papal arrogance and ostentation. To a state- 
ment that the honours paid to the Pope were his due 
as " the head of Christianity, the guide of all faithful 
monarchs, a sharer of the throne of the Apostle Peter, 
nay, of Christ himself," Ivan shrewdly made answer, 
" Christians have but one father who is in heaven. We, 
princes of the earth, are raised to our thrones by a worldly 
law. The disciples of the apostles should be humble 
and wise. To us, princes, belong Csesarean honours \ to 
popes and patriarchs the honours of episcopacy. 
He who dares to call himself a sharer of Christ's throne, 
who has himself carried on a seat (as on a cloud of 
angels), who does not live according to the holy Christian 
doctrine — such a pope is a wolf and no shepherd." With 
unflinching pertinacity, the monk returned again and 
again to his task; but his zeal led to no results. Ivan's 
purpose had been served, and so Possevin was dismissed 
with the curt but emphatic declaration, " Poman Catholics 
are at liberty to live with us a godly and honourable 
life; that's enough." A request to expel " the venomous 
Lutherans" was point-blank refused. It is, indeed, one 
among the few redeeming features of this reign that reli- 
gion w is never made an excuse for persecution. 



CHAPTER V. 

A STORMY INTERREGNUM — SERFDOM INSTITUTED — TUB 
ACCESSION OP THE ROMANOFFS. 

Ivan's Successor (1581-1597). — Ivan left two sons, 
Feodor and Dimitry. Six weeks after his death, Feodor, 
the eldest, was proclaimed as his successor. He was a soft- 
wife ted youth, very amiable, timid, and superstitious. By 
some of his people he was despised as a simpleton. By 
others he was lauded as a saint. He saw visions, and 
dreamed dreams, and was su abstracted, benevolent, and 
pious, that it was given out he received special communi- 
cations from heaven His father, discerning his unfitness 
for rule, had placed him under the guardianship of three 
boyards, with whom he associated a board of thirty coun- 
cillors. It seemed a provident arrangement, but it did not 
work well. From the outset the council addressed itself 
to a reversal of what had been Ivan's settled policy — to 
depress the influence of the nobles. Soon the councillors 
began to wrangle, intrigue, and conspire. In a short while 
Ivan's chief nominee secured an indisputable ascendancy. 
He gathered all power into his own hands. Throughout 
the thirteen years of Feodor's nominal reign he was the 
actual ruler, a veritable Mayor of the Palace; and at its 
close he possessed himself of the crown. 

This man was Boris Godunoff. He was the great 
grandson of a Tartar noble who had embraced Christianity, 
and whose descendants had thriven greatly. In Ivan's 
lifetime, Feodor had taken GodunofF's sister to wife. The 
match had Ivan's approval, for Boris was himself a 
favourite, insomuch that he alone had dared to interpose 
when the old Tsar was murdering his son. A man of 



74 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. V. 

great comprehension and energy, daringly ambitions, yet 
able bj' his strong judgment to control his ambition, he 
turned to good account the advantages he enjoyed as 
the sovereign's brother-in-law and prime adviser. His 
administration was vigorous and far-sighted. Towards 
the Tsar he behaved with wisdom and fairness, shielding 
his weakness, and taking thought for him in every way. 
His conduct made him popular, and he cultivated the 
attachment of the masses by well-timed displays of 
liberality. Feodor was childless, his onty daughter hav- 
ing died when an infant. The heir to the throne was 
thus his half-brother, the young Dimitry. This boy 
showed much of his father's disposition. There is a story, 
that one winter's day he formed a number of snow figures, 
which he named after Godunoff, and his friends. Then 
he amused himself by beating them, having their hands, 
feet, and heads struck off, and saying, when his mandates 
were obeyed, " That's what I'll do when I am in power." 
The tale, however, may only illustrate the nature of the 
apprehensions that were entertained, and be an inven- 
tion of later date, contrived to suit the facts that came 
out afterwards. 

Murder of the Young 1 Dimitry. — Dimitry and his 
mother were sent to Uglitch, a town far from Moscow. 
They lived there for a time in a sort of honourable banish- 
ment. On the 15th of May 1591, according to the most 
circumstantial among the many versions of what hap- 
pened, he felt unwell, but went to church as usual. On 
his return he was left by his nurse and governess to play 
in the court-yard of the palace. Soon afterwards he was 
found dead with a gash across his throat. He was found 
by his mother, whose outcries raised a great tumult. At 
once she denounced certain adherents of Godunoff as 
being the assassins. The accusation found ready credence 
on the part of the excited crowds who gathered at the sound 
of the church bell. They seized the alleged offenders, and 
put them to death on the spot. 

To the last the Regent steadily denied that he had any 
hand in the deed. He imputed the occurrence to acci- 



A.D. 1581-1597.1 MURDER OF YOUNG DIMITRT. 75 

dent. An inquiry as regards all the circumstances was 
ordered. The issue of it consisted in a representation 
that the boy was subject to epilepsy, and that in a fit 
he might have fallen upon a knife he held in his hand. 
Whether that was the mode of death or not, it was deter- 
mined at any rate that the wound was self-inflicted. So 
much having been fixed, Boris turned to consider the 
precipitate and unwise conduct of the people who had mas- 
sacred his retainers. A terrible vengeance was inflicted 
upon them. The Tsarina was forced to take the veil. 
Her brothers were cast into prison. The ringleaders of 
the riot were slain. So many more of the inhabitants were 
banished that Uglitch was left desolate. Of course this 
excessive severity only tended to spread and strengthen 
the sinister rumours that provoked it; though there came 
a time when it was widely believed that the rumours them- 
selves were fallacious — that Dimitry had never been killed. 
Meanwhile the injurious reports received colour, if not 
confirmation, from alleged facts that began to be whispered 
about. Other members of the royal house had died sud- 
denly. Nephews and nieces of the Tsar had disappeared 
in a mysterious manner. The agency of poison was hinted 
at; and suspicion pointed to Godunoff as the man in 
whose interest, and probably by whose orders, they had 
been cut off". 

He held on his course unmoved. The country prospered 
under his rule. His general policy was as enlightened as 
it was firm though cautious. He executed many great 
works. He founded Tobolsk. He strengthened Smolen- 
sko. He carried civilization into Siberia. From his own 
enormous fortune, which he husbanded with a prudent 
care, he contributed with a lavish generosity to all public 
objects. Moscow was half consumed by fire, and he took 
upon himself the chief burden of alleviating the distress 
thus caused. But nothing could overcome the dead weight 
of mistrust and dislike b<3 had to face. Even his best deeds 
were suspected and misrepresented, insomuch that the 
common people believed the conflagration was of his own 
kindling, that he might divert attention from Dimitry's 



76 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. V. 

death and win a repute for generosity. In war he was 
both able and fortunate. When his kinsmen, the Grim 
Tartars, invaded the country, sweeping up to the heights 
that surround Moscow, Feodor contented himself with 
announcing his conviction, derived in answer to prayer, 
that they would be discomfited. Boris put himself at 
the head of the army, and in the course of a brief cam- 
paign, in which he displayed signal skill and courage, 
routed the foe with immense loss. On his return from 
this campaign he banished many of the nobles who were 
most hostile to him, while he bought the support of 
others by establishing the institution of serfdom. 

Serfdom. — -The change he made seemed at first sight 
of trivial moment. It was no nefarious scheme against 
human liberty, planned with deliberate adroitness and 
carried out with ruthless determination. On the con- 
trary, it was introduced in an incidental manner, and 
was justified by reasons so plausible that its author 
may well have deemed that he was conferring a benefit 
upon all concerned. Certainly he had no forecast of where- 
unto the thing would grow, the number of persons it 
would affect, or the tremendous consequences it would 
involve. The history carries one back to the old Slavonic 
times, with their "rods" and " jupas" A survival of 
the "jupa" or village community, so well known in the 
infancy of most states, by whatever race they are peopled, 
exists in Russia under the name of the mir, or commune. 
It existed long before Godunoff's day. To such mir 
every Russian who is not of noble rank, or a citizen, 
behoved to belong. In it his rights as regards the state 
were gathered up. The state took no account of him 
individually, but dealt with the mir as an unit. The 
mir, according to the orginal idea, was the peasant's 
world. Indeed, it is the same word as that he uses when he 
would express his idea of the kosmos. Within that world 
he could move with a considerable degree of freedom. 
Each mir possessed a certain portion of land, which was 
divided anew among the families composing it every nine 
years, the right of ownership always remaining in the 



A.D. 1581-1597.] BORIS MADE TSAR. 77 

general community. But the whole land was not so 
allotted. The communes were isolated and often far 
apart. Great estates intervened betwixt them, though 
a portion of these estates had to be assigned to the 
mir that lay nearest them. In return the community 
were bound to furnish a certain amount of labour, and a 
peasant might hire himself out for a fixed period, or for 
life, as he chose. In cases where a tract of time was not 
specified in the bargain, then, on St. George's day of 
each year, the labourer was free to shift. 

For some time previous to 1593 the shiftings had been 
very frequent. A strong migration towards the south 
had set in. It had come to be known that there more 
genial skies and a richer and more easily tilled soil were 
to be found. Some of the free communes were largely 
deserted. The nobles, to whom they were pledged for a 
certain amount of labour, complained of annoyance and 
deficiency. Very strong measures were resorted to, in 
many cases, to arrest the movement. In some communes 
it was enacted that no member should leave without 
providing a substitute. On many estates arbitrary and 
violent methods were taken to prevent desertion. The 
state of rural society in the northern parts was confused 
and embittered to an extraordinary degree, while there 
was some hazard that the land would be left uncultivated. 
It was in these circumstances that Godunoff legislated. 
His proceeding was simplicity itself. He decreed that, 
after St. George's day of 1593, the privilege of free move- 
ment should cease. By this law multitudes of men over 
a wide tract of country became adscripti glebce — slaves 
to the soil, bound to work for their lords three days in 
the week, or to pay him a rent which was called ohrok. 
The system hardened, extended, and became one of the 
most striking characteristics of Russian government. 

Boris made Tsar. — Early in 1598 Feodor died. It 
illustrates the inveteracy of the mistrust with which 
Boris was regarded that evil surmises were circulated to 
his prejudice regarding the mode and cause of death. 
There is almost complete unanimity among historians 



78 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. T. 

in pronouncing them unwarrantable. Even writers who 
stand in doubt as to his conduct towards the young 
Dimitry agree that there is no reason for imputing to him 
any foul play in respect to Feodor. There is probably as 
little truth in the tale that, when Feodor felt himself 
dying, he offered his staff, the emblem of sovereignty, to 
several persons, who refused to take it ; that then, in a 
fit of petulance, he cast it upon the floor; and that Boris 
at once lifted it up. When the Tsar's will was read it 
was found that he had named his widow, G-odunoff's 
sister, as his successor, with the proviso that G-odunofF 
should continue to act as regent. Feodor was the last 
male representative, in a direct line, of the dynasty which 
had ruled Russia by the space of seven hundred and 
thirty years. Collateral branches of the family founded 
by the Scandinavian Vikings did exist, and to one of them 
the present imperial house belongs. 

If Boris had been anxious to win the crown, he was 
now in no hurry to take it. His sister was proclaimed 
as sovereign within a week after her husband's death, but 
a few days afterwards she resigned the office, retired to a 
convent, and took the veil. Then her brother was invited 
by the council of boyards to mount the throne. To their 
surprise, and very much to their bewilderment, he refused 
persistently. Weeks passed, and a general* assembly of 
the states was convened to consider what should be done. 
It met at Moscow towards the end of February, a body 
containing 474 members, of whom 99 were ecclesiastics, 
272 nobles, land proprietors, or government officials, 33 
deputies from towns, 27 representatives of the mercantile 
class, and 16 of the common people. With virtual unan- 
imity they declared Boris the most competent person to 
save the state from the anarchy which threatened it, and 
a large deputation was chosen to wait upon him with the 
prayer that he would assume this ministry. He had 
retired to the convent where his sister was, and it was 
given out that, tired with the cares and worry of public 
life, he intended to take monastic vows and end his days 
there. When the deputies am ved he was at his devo* 



A.D. 1581-1597.1 FIRST FALSE DIMITRY. 79 

tions, and declined to be disturbed. When the decision 
of the assembly was made known to him, and he was 
humbly entreated to comply with their request, he 
solemnly vowed, "Never will it enter into my thoughts 
that I should reign. How could I possibly think of 
aught so exalted ! God is my witness such a thing never 
came into my mind." At length, in answer to the long- 
continued and increasingly-urgent expostulations and 
appeals by which he was assailed, he burst out with the 
utterance, " O Lord God, I am thy servant ! Let thy 
will be done !" The scene is suggestive of many paral- 
lels, though the closest of them — closer than that of 
Csesar or of Cromwell — is to be found in the case of 
Richard III., as narrated in the old English chroniclers 
and preserved in Shakespeare. The resemblance extends 
to the language used. The part played by Buckingham 
on the English stage was performed in the counterpart 
drama by the Patriarch. This man, named Job, was a 
mere creature of Godunoff's. He was the first who held 
that exalted office in the Russian Church, and he owed 
his appointment to the powerful Regent. Some years 
before Boris had obtained from Constantinople, from the 
Patriarch Jeremiah, the nomination of a colleague, who was 
endowed with the right of consecrating archbishops to all 
the Russian provinces, subject only to a 'pro forma recog- 
nition of supremacy in his Greek brother. That the 
reluctance to accept the throne which Boris showed was 
but a piece of coy dissimulation, is inferred not only frcm 
the fact that Job was his most active partisan, and the 
chief spokesman at the conference, but that his agents, 
by the coarsest means, including threats and blows, coerced 
the representatives of the common people among the 
deputies into a display of earnestness on his behalf. 

The First False Dimitry. — His reign was brief, and 
despite his enlightenment and ability, it was far from 
prosperous. He sought to strengthen it by uniting his 
family with the reigning houses of Europe; but one after 
another these matrimonial projects failed. He sought to 
found universities for the diffusion of scientific knowledge 



80 HISTORY OF RUSSIi. [CHAP. V. 

and the study of foreign languages, but the opposition of 
the clergy defeated his plans. He proposed first to 
Austria, and then to Persia, the formation of a league 
against the Turks, but neither of them would listen to him. 
Though Poland and Lithuania had recoiled from the keen 
edge of his sword and the force with which it was 
wielded, he tried most anxiously to make friends with 
them, and events arose which embittered the chronic 
hostility. A succession of bad harvests rendered the 
years 1601-3 years of terrible dearth; but though he 
exerted himself with immense activity and munificence 
to mitigate its effects, the people murmured against him 
as if he had been somehow the cause of the disaster. 
Amid these unfortunate and disquieting conditions a 
strange rumour spread from lip to lip that Prince Dimitry 
was alive, that he had found favour in the eyes of the 
Polish king, and that, with Sigismund's help, he was 
preparing to claim his brother's and father's seat. At 
another time the tale might have been scouted as in- 
credible. As things were, its unlikelihood was readily 
overlooked. The story was held true in relation to a youth 
who asserted that he was Dimitry. If an impostor, as is 
now generally supposed, though there always have been 
upholders of his claims, he managed his imposition with 
consummate skill and with exceeding good fortune. 

The account he gave of himself was, that the inten- 
tion of Boris to murder him had been discovered, that .a 
priest's son was found who met death in his stead, and 
that he had been conveyed to a convent where he was 
educated in secrecy. He showed a seal bearing the arms 
and name of Dimitry, and a valuable diamond cross said 
to have belonged to him, as corroborative of his state- 
ments. Soon persons were found who spoke with great 
confidence as to his identity, specifying certain marks 
and peculiarities which were known to them as charac- 
teristic of Dimitry, all which were found in the pre- 
tender. Handsome, plausible, confident, well versed in 
all the circumstances it concerned him to know, he made 
a great impression, and gained over to his cause many of 



A.D. 1598-1603.] FIRST FALSE DIMITRY. 81 

the Polish nobles. Among others he obtained the friend- 
ship of the Pala ine of Sandomir, who showed a thorough 
belief alike in his claims and his prospects by consenting 
that he should wed his daughter. The young man was 
introduced to the King of Poland, who at a solemn audi- 
ence professed his conviction that the representation 
made was true, exclaiming, " God preserve thee, Prince of 
Muscovy. Thy birth is attested by satisfactory evidence. 
We assign thee a pension of forty thousand florins, and 
as*our friend and guest permit thee to accept the counsels 
and services of our subjects !" Of this permission the 
pretender hastened to take avail. He ingratiated him- 
self still farther with the Poles, by abjuring the Greek 
faith, and entering the Romish church. He was soon at 
the head of a small army, and at the close of 1604 he 
invaded Bussia. 

Boris acted with his customary promptitude. He col- 
lected evidence to show that the fellow was one Gregory 
Otrepief, the descendant of a noble though poverty-stricken 
family, who had been trained for a monk, and, not liking 
that life, had run away from it. He procured from the 
living mother of the murdered prince a testimony that her 
son was indeed slain. He made an exposure of the con- 
spiracy to the Polish sovereign, appealing to his honour 
to desist from the course he had begun, and threatening 
him with vengeance should he persevere. When this 
appeal was disregarded, he forbade all intercourse between 
his subjects and the Poles; he got his friend the Patriarch 
to fulminate his anathema against all who should abet 
Otrepief s pretensions; and he collected an army where- 
with to crush him. In vain were all this energy and 
precaution. The Cossacks of the Don declared for the 
pretender, giving earnest of their adherence by sending 
a contingent to the force he led, which more than doubled 
its strength. As he advanced he was joined by multi- 
tudes of disaffected people. He was successful in his 
first encounter with the troops of Boris; and the victory 
was of course interpreted as a sure presage of his final 
triumph. He behaved with courage and energy in the 

P 



82 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. V. 

field, and with still more remarkable discretion and 
humanity when the fight was done. Conduct and for- 
tune thus combined to recommend his cause. It is true 
that Boris sent out large armies against him, by whom 
he was repeatedly subjected to defeat; but these victories 
did not tell. They appeared to have no effect in arrest- 
ing the development of popular feeling on his behalf. 
The prejudiced and superstitious multitude were swayed 
to his side by an impulse which prompted them to con- 
strue all things in his favour. His defeats were as gain- 
ful as if he had been the conqueror. Every move made 
by his antagonist served a purpose directly the reverse of 
what was intended. A report that Boris had sent emis- 
saries to his camp who tried to poison him was greedily 
believed, and inflamed popular passion greatly. Meteors 
in the heavens were regarded as omens of God's wrath 
against the usurper, and warnings of evil should the 
rightful prince not be reinstated. The progress of the 
defection shook the vigorous mind of Boris. He fancied 
that, instead of the impostor, the reanimated corpse of 
young Dimitry was at the head of the army that had 
given him so much trouble. That prince's mother was 
sent for, and questioned privately as to her son's death. 
When she now answered that she could not tell whether 
he was alive or dead, she was fearfully abused by word 
and deed, and ordered off to close confinement. It is a 
marvel she escaped alive. His terrors and suspicions led 
Boris for a brief space to imitate the cruelties of Ivan 
the Terrible. He trusted no one, not even the spies by 
whom he surrounded himself. The prisons were filled. 
Tortures and executions were frequent. No one could 
guess what was likely to happen; when, on the 13th of 
April, 1605, the Tsar who had that day shown unusually 
good spirits, who had eaten heartily, and who after dinner 
had ascended to a chamber which gave him a view of all 
Moscow, suddenly expired. It was said that, failing to 
poison his rival he had poisoned himself, but the circum- 
stances of the death contradict that notion. 

The Reign of Dimitry. — Next day his son Feodor, an 



A.D. 1598-1605.] REIGN OP DIMITRY. 83 

amiable youth, sixteen years old, was proclaimed as Tsar, 
under the guardianship of his mother. His reign was 
short and tragic. At first there seemed to be in Moscow 
something like a cordial acquiescence in his support. It 
may have been an enforced conformity, for there is 
evidence that the common people had largely turned 
away from his father, and were much incensed against 
him. In the meanwhile the news that Boris was removed, 
with the reports as to how the removal had taken place, 
strengthened by a new and powerful force the claims of 
the false Dimitry. It had been gathering support from 
many diverse quarters. It now broke forth in an over- 
whelming rush. On the 7th of May the army declared 
for the pretender. On the first of June a vast crowd 
assembled outside the Kremlin to hear a proclamation 
that he had issued as Tsar. The excitement was intense. 
A great tumult arose. The buzz of curiosity and specu- 
lation was heard all round. People were determined to 
be satisfied ; and the means of satisfaction were easy. 
Before the surging and eager multitude, Prince Shouisky, 
one of the house of Purik, a direct descendant of St. 
Vladimir, the man who conducted the inquest at Uglitch 
when the alleged murder or suicide was supposed to have 
taken place, was brought forward to make a declaration. 
He declared, " Boris ordered Dimitry to be killed, but 
the Tsarevitch was saved. The son of a priest was buried 
in his place." The statement was received as conclusive. 
Forthwith cries of " Hail, Dimitry Ivanovitch," rent 
the air. Then there came shouts of " Down with the 
Godunofis!" Moved by the spirit that thus prompted 
them, the Kremlin was stormed. The mob rushed pell-mell 
into the palace, to find, when they reached the presence- 
chamber, the young monarch on his throne, with his 
mother and sister beside him, holding holy pictures. 
They were all three seized, were imprisoned in a private 
house, and a few days later wero strangled by order of 
two boyards of the ascendant party. A story of self- 
poisoning was iiivented in their case also. Following 
upon its acceptance, their corpses were buried without 



84 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. ?. 

funeral rites, while that of Boris was dug up from the 
place of royal sepulture, where it had been interred with 
much pomp, and was flung into the same hole. 

On the 20th of June Dimitry entered the capital. His 
reception was a triumph. No apparent touch of scepticism 
affected the welcome by which he was greeted. Any 
latent feeling of the sort was overcome by the scene which 
was enacted a week or two later. The coronation of the 
new-found Tsar was postponed till his mother could attend 
it. She was brought with great pomp from the convent 
to which she had returned after her liberation from the 
confinement to which she was ordered before GlodunofFs 
death. The Tsar went forth to meet her with an immense 
cavalcade. When her litter was stopped, and she drew 
back the curtain, he leapt from his horse, and amid sobs 
and tears, embraces and gratulations, they attested before 
all the people, in a most impressive manner, their instant 
mutual recognition and remembrance. On the 30th of 
July the so-called Dimitry was crowned in the Moscow 
cathedral with even more than the usual pomp and cere- 
mony. For a time all went well. The qualities which 
made him popular in the camp made him popular also in 
the city; and he was assiduous in their cultivation. Very 
soon, however, it became clear that the height to which 
he had so unexpectedly climbed was too much for his 
head. He became indifferent, arrogant, imperious. These 
faults were intensified when he brought home his espoused 
wife. She was a Pole of the Poles, and flaunted in a 
most injudicious way, alike her religion and her nation- 
ality. It speedily became evident that her husband was 
either completely under her domination, or that if a 
Russian by birth he had ceased to be a Russian in feel- 
ing. He outraged the habits and sympathies of hia 
people with a scornful glee it was hard to abide. Foreign 
customs were introduced at court. Foreign guards were 
placed in attendance at it. Foreign favourites were sus- 
pected of bearing sway. The Tsar had sense enough to 
make no parade of the Roman Catholici-sm to which he 
had been converted; but his wife insisted upon affronting 



A.D. 1598-1609.] DIMITRY'S DOWNFALL. 85 

the professors of the orthodox faith. All this brought 
about swift recompense of a direful sort. 

Dimitry's Downfall. — A conspiracy was formed against 
the sovereign who had been so lately welcomed. Its chief 
was that Prince Shouisky whose testimony had extin- 
guished any lingering doubt that the alleged Dimitry was 
no impostor. From that time Shouisky bad chafed and 
sulked, the supposition being that his chagrin was due 
to disappointment at not receiving higher honours and a 
larger confidence than were awarded him. Though a 
weak and vacillating man he had a measure of adroit- 
ness, which he turned to account in fostering opposition 
to the new monarch. His plot was discovered ; and, 
along with his younger brothers who were convicted of 
participation in it, he was condemned to die. He had 
actually been led out on the scaffold to suffer execution, 
when the Tsar ostentatiously intervened, and granted 
him a pardon. Gratitude for having his life spared 
proved less powerful than the annoyance and vexation 
he experienced over the frustration of his schemes, and 
the galling manner in which he had been humiliated. 
Moved by a desire for revenge, he fell to plotting anew 
in a style more deep, patient, and subtle than before. 
Among his own class his overtures were received with 
much favour. The leading members of the clergy fell in 
with his counsels, and they in turn zealously promoted 
his object among the populace. Upon the 28th of May, 
the signal for revolt was given by tolling the great bell 
of Moscow. It was answered from all the belfries in the 
city. Aroused from the festivities at which he was 
enjoying himself to ask the cause of the clangour, the 
Tsar was told "it is a fire;" and with that explanation 
he was content. He was speedily undeceived. The con- 
spirators had secured every entrance to the Kremlin. 
As the populace came surging up, their fury was turned 
upon the Polish guards, whom they sought out and slew. 
Headed by Shouisky, a party of armed men burst into 
the palace, exploring room after room, in quest of the 
man to whom they had sworn allegiance. He behaved 



86 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. V. 

in rather a craven fashion. He rushed to his "wife's 
chamber, telling her to save herself, which she did for a 
time by aid of a lady-in-waiting. After a vain attempt 
to hide, he jumped from a window thirty feet from the 
ground. He was taken up with his leg broken, by some 
of his guards who remained faithful. In reply to the 
denunciations of him as an impostor, they said they 
would surrender him were his reputed mother, who was 
in the palace, to repudiate him. Such a repudiation was 
given, or extorted, and at once proclaimed. The people 
were in the mood to believe it, and the belief excited a 
fierceness of rage which was uncontrollable. The ill-fated 
youth was thrust through with a spear; his naked corpse 
was stuck up in the Red Square of the Kremlin, where 
it remained for three days, a mark for every species of 
savage contumely; it was then flung into a hole in the 
"stranger's field," otherwise called "the House of the 
Poor;" and finally, owing to a superstitious belief that 
the sorceries of which he was now accused were still 
working mischief, it was dug up, and was burned to 
ashes, which, mixed with gunpowder, were fired from a 
gun pointed along the road by which he came to Moscow. 
His wife and father-in-law, who were caught in the palace, 
were kept in confinement for a while, but were not un- 
kindly treated, and were afterwards sent home. 

The Reign of Vassily Shouisky. — The false Dimitry 
having been removed, the ulterior aim of the leading con- 
spirator was revealed. Prince Shouisky was raised to the 
vacant throne, taking the title of Vassily IV. It was a 
natural enough appointment. On the ground of hereditary 
right, Shouisky, who belonged to the family of Souzdal, 
and could trace his descent back to Alexander Nevsky 
and St. Vladimir, had as strong a claim as any compe- 
titor; while his recent services were of course accounted 
deserving of recognition. Unfortunately for him, he or 
his friends were much too precipitate. The form of an 
election was gone through on his behalf; but the pro- 
ceedings were forced and irregular. He was the nominee 
of the boyards alone, who exacted as a prior condition 



A. D. 1598-1609.] SECOND FALSE DIMITRY. 87 

A pledge that he would rule in accordance with their 
wiy^.es. His name was never submitted to a properly- 
called and properly-constituted general assembly. This 
omission was pointed out and protested against when the 
people of Moscow were summoned to the grand square to 
hear him proclaimed. It was averred, in particular, that 
without the assent of deputies from the Muscovite towns 
the choice was invalid. These unwelcome representations 
were drowned amid the obstreperous shouts of Shouisky's 
partisans. His acceptance was carried; he was forthwith 
sworn in; allegiance was vowed to him in return; and a 
circular message was sent to all the towns with news of 
what had taken place. 

The difficulties Yassily had to face were in their own 
nature sufficiently complex and formidable. They were 
much aggravated by the manner of his elevation. It 
soon appeared there was iij disposition throughout the 
country to confirm the action of the boyards. The people 
felt they had been outwitted. The questionable conduct 
of Yassily towards the late pretender was canvassed 
much to his disadvantage. Sorrow for the miserable fate 
of that promising and attractive youth, mingled with 
doubts as to whether the evidence upon which he had 
been so hastily deposed and condemned was not weaker 
than the evidence upon which he had been so enthusiasti- 
cally welcomed. The workings of the popular mind as 
thus influenced took a strange development. It is com- 
prehensible that there should have been a reaction from 
the outburst of fury in which the pretender was slain; 
but one might have deemed it incredible that any scepti- 
cism as to the fact of his death should arise. 

The Second False Dimitry. — Yet during all his brief 
reign, Yassily was plagued by the appearances of men 
who asserted themselves to be the late sovereign, main- 
taining that the corpse which had been exposed, buffeted, 
and spat upon was not his, but that of a substitute. 
More than one such pretenier came forward ere Yassily 
could be aroused out of nis amusement and indifference. 
At length a schoolmaster ir> Sokoia obtained such a fol- 



$8 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. * 

lowing, that it was deemed necessary to hang him. Other 
claimants to the throne sprang up in swarms. One said 
he was a son of Ivan the Terrible, others that they were 
grandsons, either through Ivan (whom his father killed), 
or through Feodor; but the most formidable of all was 
another spurious Dimitry. Who this daring adventurer 
really was is uncertain. His face and** figure resembled 
those of his predecessor. Like him he was a man of 
address and tact. The Polish leaders espoused his cause 
with an enthusiasm equal to that they had previously 
displayed. A great point in his favour was made when 
Marina of Sandomir was induced to acknowledge him aa 
her husband. No doubt she was animated by a desire 
for revenge, as the Poles were by motives of policy. For 
a while it seemed as if both would be gratified by a repe- 
tition of the success which had formerly been gained. 
Russia was invaded; the people declared for the pre- 
tender; the armies sent out to check his progress were 
defeated; and the tide of conquest rolled up to the walls 
of Moscow. In a little time the capital opened its gates, 
and the whole country round about submitted to the new 
authority, the only exception being the monastery of 
Troitsa, itself a fortified town, which was gallantly held 
by a handful of brave men for more than sixteen months. 
At the end of that period the siege was raised by the 
appearance of Prince Schopin-Shouisky — a man of far 
more nerve and ability than his imperial cousin — at the 
head of a strong body of Russian troops and Swedish 
auxiliaries. In a few weeks the pretender was forced to 
withdraw from Moscow; and good hopes came to be 
entertained that the tide of fortune had turned. The 
expectation was belied through the occurrence of two 
events which altered the whole condition of affairs. 
Prince Schopin died suddenly; and Sigismund of Poland 
declared war upon his own account. Success attended 
his arms everywhere; while the Russians were left with- 
out any adequate leadership. They were repeatedly 
defeated ; Smolensk© was taken by siege ; and Vassily 
was reduced to such straits that he could not pay the 



A.D. 1598-1609.] A POLE AS TSAR. 89 

Swedes, who went over to the enemy. The road to 
Moscow was now clear, and the alleged Dimitry, with 
Marina, and her father, joined the victorious host that 
marched upon it. The inhabitants seized Vassily, forc- 
ing him first to abdicate, and then to turn monk. The 
assumption of the cowl did not save him. He was sub- 
sequently dragged from his monastery, sent on to War- 
saw, and immured in a dungeon where he was confined 
for life. 

A Pole as Tsar. — Whether Sigismund would have 
set up the second false Dimitry on the throne, now that 
he had the power, is more than problematical. He was 
relieved from the difficulty of deciding by the fact that 
almost simultaneously with the enforced abdication of 
Shouisky, his rival was accidentally killed by a Tartar 
chief when out hunting. A few months of sad disorder 
and embroilment ensued, during which the Polish king 
cautiously and sedulously advanced a project he had long 
cherished. This was nothing less than an union of 
the crowns. With a little less of crooked policy in the 
arts by which this design was pursued, with a little more 
of conciliation in the terms it was sought to impose, and 
of patience in waiting for the upshot, success might have 
been achieved, Russia might have been annexed to 
Poland, or partitioned with Sweden, and there would 
have been a different Europe from that which now exists. 

Sigismund had reinforced the influence acquired by his 
victories through a lavish distribution of gold among the 
boyards. Yet he did not dare to suggest that they should 
choose himself as their sovereign. He was content to 
recommend the council of nobles to elect his son Ladislas. 
This they did with an unanimity and a readiness that 
surprised him, provoking his regret that he had not 
embraced the chance for having his purpose made an 
immediate fact rather than a prospective contingency. 
He knew that the so-called election was open to the same 
charge of irregularity as that of the late monarch, the 
consent of the nation having been neither asked nor 
given; but he thought nothing of this neglect, and the 



90 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. V. 

alacrity with which town after town accepted the procla- 
mation of Ladislas might have seemed to excuse his indif- 
ference. He ought not, however, to have left the clergy 
out of his calculations. They had often exhibited much 
patriotic feeling, and their religious esprit de corps was 
now appealed to as well. They could not be blind to the 
hazards which their church would incur at the hands of 
a sovereign professing an alien faith. This consideration 
they pressed upon their people with an earnestness that 
produced a profound impression. Their warnings and 
exhortations led to a representation being forwarded to 
Warsaw, where Ladislas still was, that it would be indis- 
pensable he should conform to the Greek ritual. The 
king was staggered; but the condition was distasteful, he 
underrated the influence, sincerity, and zeal of those who 
preferred the demand; and he fell into the blunder of 
meeting it by a haughty refusal. 

The Polish Invasion Repulsed. — This was the turn- 
ing-point in the history of a well -contrived scheme, 
prosecuted with patient energy, and more than feasible. 
From that moment it encountered a determined resist- 
ance. Mistrust grew to aversion, and aversion to a 
pitch of animosity it was as impossible to subdue as to 
reason with. From one end of the country to the other, 
there arose a cry for the expulsion of the foreigners. 
The inhabitants of Novgorod, with a revival of their 
ancient spirit of independence, scouted any allegiance to 
Ladislas, and, under the leadership of a patriotic butcher 
named Kosma-Minin, rose in force to maintain their 
protest. Their example was followed by the people of 
other cities and towns. Moscow was held by a Polish 
garrison, who had been cordially received in September 
1610, though six months later they were as heartily 
detested. They had themselves done much to cause the 
change. Made aware of what was taking place outside 
they began to swagger and oppress, subjecting the inhabi- 
tants to insulting usage and grinding oppression. Of 
course quarrels ensued, and the city became a scene of 
bloodshed and confusion. The garrison, however, kept 



A...D. 1598-1609.] POLISH INVASION REPULSED. 91 

the upper hand, and made its weight ever fall more 
heavily. Then a league was formed by the insurgents 
for the deliverance of the capital, and by the end of March 
it was well nigh completely invested. The Poles made 
preparations for defence, compelling Russian carters to 
drag their artillery to the ramparts. A dispute arising, 
the soldiers fell upon the unarmed throngs, and as the 
strife spread killed a great many persons. In that part 
of the city called the Bely-Gorod or White-town, the 
Muscovites threw " up barricades behind which they 
defended themselves courageously. Irritated by this 
defiance, the Poles set the place on lire, and all that 
quarter was destroyed, as were the others where the 
natives principally dwelt. The inhabitants took flight, 
wandering about the adjacent country in quest of food 
and shelter, and suffering terrible privations consequent 
upon the severity of the weather. . 

The summer that succeeded was a dismal time. Never 
had the country been so distracted and abased. Prom 
Smolensko King Sigismund threatened to overrun and 
rule it as a conquered territory. In the north, the Swedes 
whom Yassily Shouisky had brought to fight against 
the Poles seized several towns, Novgorod among them, in 
the name of their own sovereign. The Cossacks of the 
Don, to one of whose chiefs Marina of Sandomir was 
now married, upheld the cause of her son. The Tar- 
tars of the Crimea overspread the whole country farther 
south. Brigandage was common ; the land was left 
untilled; suffering, uncertainty, and dread were every- 
where prevalent. 

Nevertheless the spirit of the people was not broken. 
Some few grandees stood erect amid the general servility, 
animating the people by an example of probity, disinte- 
restedness, and public virtue. The clergy remained 
staunch in their adherence to the national cause, and 
contributed powerfully to keep others true. Among the 
middle and lower orders the crisis called forth several 
great men, other than the heroic butcher of Novgorod, 
of the stamp qualified *o meet a great occasion. In 



92 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. fcHAP. V. 

October 1611, a general assembly was convened at Nijny 
Novgorod. After divine service a summons to action 
received from the monastery of Troitsa was read. Minin 
came forward with a proposal that it should be obeyed, 
even should they have to sell their homesteads, and give 
their wives and children to temporary serfdom. The 
earnestness that fired his rough oratory was catching. A 
great united effort to free the country was resolved upon. 
Prince Dimitry Pojorsky, whose name and character 
were alike fitted to evoke patriotic ardour, was placed in 
command of the army which was raised in a few weeks. 
Minin was entrusted with the appropriate task of seeing 
to the commissariat. Success was found to be easier 
than had been anticipated. The uprising was that of a 
whole people, and before it opposition was swept away. 
The only stubborn difficulty was presented at the capital. 
For two months, from August till October, the Polish gar- 
rison kept the place, against overwhelming numbers, suffer- 
ing straits so dire that it is said they had to eat human 
flesh; but at length they capitulated, and Russia was freed. 
Accession of Michael Romanoff. — At Christmas a 
general assembly met for the choice of a ruler. It was 
an anxious business. In preparation for it a three days' 
fast was observed throughout the country, and prayers 
for divine guidance were offered in all the churches. For 
a time it seemed as if these supplications were to be 
unanswered. The early meetings of the assembly were 
marked by long, stormy, and fruitless debates. The 
names of several boyards were mentioned as eligible for 
the throne; but Prince Pojorsky, who might have looked 
for the honour himself, wisely counselled, that after what 
had happened, the choice of a noble would breed fresh 
jealousies and dissensions. Then the claims of several 
among the clergy were canvassed; but the idea of raising 
a priest to the supreme power in the state was repugnant 
to many. Some thought was next entertained of invit- 
ing a Swedish prince; but a majority of the assembly 
protested against the inconsistency of driving out one 
foreign ruler in order to bring in another. At length a 



.*» 1598-1609. ] ACCESSION OP MICHAEL ROMANOFF. £ 



tt .£ 



nomination was made which conciliated all diversities of 
opinion. It was that of a lad, sixteen years of age, soa 
of Philaret, the Metropolitan of Rostoff. He was a scion 
of the house of Jftuiik — so that he had the claims of royal 
lineage and divine right. His father had been con- 
spicuous among the clergy for his services and sufferings 
in the national cause — so that patriotic and class feel- 
ings were both gratified in honouring him. Withal 
his age, his nurture, his disposition suggested that he 
would be amenable to advice. These considerations 
sufficed to secure virtual unanimity. On the first Sun- 
day of Lent, in 1(513, it was proclaimed to the crowds 
who thronged the great square of the Kremlin, that 
the assembly had made choice of Michael Feodoro fitch 
Bom&aoff m Tsar 



CHAPTER Vi. 

THE ROMANOFF DYNASTY. 

Origin of the Family. — An immense amount of most, 
ingenious research has been expended in the endeavour 
to trace out the early history of the Romanoffs. Accord- 
ing to Miiller, a distinguished Russian antiquary, they 
are of German origin. They are said to have had the 
same ancestor with the Cheremetiefs, one Andrew Ivano- 
vitch, s rnamed Kobyla, who came to Moscow in the 
reifm of Ivan Kalita. or of his son. somewhere about the 
middle of the fourteenth century. Having regard to the 
circumstances of the country at that time, Miiller says, 
" it is permissible to represent the ancestor of the 
Romanoffs and Cheremetiefs as a knight who went first 
to Livonia, and thence to Russia, to conquer the infidels." 
The representation may not be more fanciful than those 
which genealogists are accustomed to assume and retail, 
but it cannot pretend to any basis of certainty. The 
future course of the Romanoff branch of the Kobylin 
family has been traced out. Andrew became a boyard. 
So did his fifth son, Feoclor, who grew a much richer 
man than his father. The younger sons of the house 
seem, indeed, to have had the knack of outstripping their 
seniors. Feodor's youngest grandson was the founder of 
the Zacharin family. One of Zachary's grandsons was 
named Roman. He had a daughter, Anastasia, the first 
wife and the good genius of Ivan the Terrible. He had 
also a son, Nikita Romanoff. The affectionate veneration 
with which the popular mind cherished the memory of 
Anastasia made her nephews the objects of mistrust and 
dislike to the usurper, Boris Godunoff. There were five 



A.D. 1613-1645.] MICHAEL I. 95 

of them. Two were exiled. Two were imprisoned, the 
heavy chains with which they were loaded in their dun- 
geons being still preserved. The fifth, the youngest, the 
handsomest, the gayest, was torn from his home and 
forced to become a monk, receiving in religion the name 
of Philaret. On the downfall of Godunoff he was made 
Metropolitan of RostofF. In that capacity, while other 
towns were welcoming the second false Dimitry, he kept 
it faithful to Vassily. In revenge a number of the pre- 
tender's partisans made a sudden onset, and carried 
Philaret off a prisoner. He soon contrived to make his 
escape ; and on the abdication of Vassily he was one of a 
commission sent to treat with the Polish king. At first 
they were received with kindness and respect, but the 
consideration of their business was adjourned time after 
time to wait the development of events, and in the end 
they were thrown into prison. Philaret was a captive 
when his son was chosen Tsar. 

Michael I. (1013-1645).— At first the lad declined the 
Ugnity. He was supported in his refusal by the advice 
of his mother and his female relatives. No doubt the fate 
of the last two monarchs prompted their disinclination. 
In the end, however, the appeals that were addressed 
alike to pride and patriotism, were efficacious. A reluc- 
tant consent was given, and conditions of acceptance were 
adjusted which were marked on either side by singular 
prudence and wisdom. They were embodied in a formal 
deed which set forth the legality of Michael's election, 
contained a promise of true allegiance, and guaranteed, 
under the most solemn sanctions, the hereditary succes- 
sion tc the throne in the order of primogeniture. On the 
other side, Michael was taken bound to protect and sup- 
port the Greek religion ; to enter upon no war, promul- 
gate no new law, nor alter any old one, without the 
consent of the imperial council ; to decide no dispute, 
except in conformity with existing laws, the intention 
and application of which were patent; and either to 
surrender his private estates to his family, or to incor- 
porate them with the crown domain. The deed was in 



96 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. TI. 

fact nothing less than a well-devised national constitu- 
tion, the observance of which would have rendered 
impossible the establishment of that arbitrary and rigor- 
ous despotism which soon came to prevail. 

Michael did observe it. During the thirty-two years 
of his reign he was careful never to overstep his preroga- 
tives. His public conduct was uniformly honest, moderate, 
and wise. His reward came in the respect and prosperity 
he enjoyed. At first he was plagued by various attempts 
at revolt, but they were subdued without trouble ; and 
though some of the ringleaders were punished, their 
followers were treated with great clemency. Old Philaret 
was made Patriarch, and was associated with his son in 
all the cares of the empire. The proceeding might have 
excited jealousy, but not a murmur was heard against it. 
Instead, it was praised as a becoming instance of filial 
devotedness, and Michael was the profiter, not only in 
respect of the public approbation accorded to his conduct, 
but of the salutary counsel he became entitled to invite, 
and the lessened responsibility he had to bear. A period 
of order, reformation, and advancement, succeeded the 
long term of confusion, imposture, and decline, which 
had proved so harassing and deplorable. Commercial 
enterprise took a start which carried it a long way farther 
than it had ever previously attained. Treaties to regulate 
mercantile intercourse were concluded with China and 
Persia on the one side, with England in 1623, and with 
France in 1629, upon the other. Everything throve to 
which Michael put his hand, except when he engaged in 
war. The relations of Russia towards Sweden and 
Poland led to repeated embroilments, the issues of which 
told heavily against him. 

War with Sweden. — The Swedish difficulty was an in- 
heritance from the days of Ladislas and Yassily Shouisky. 
It has been told how Vassily hired Swedes to help him 
against the Poles, and how, when Ladislas obtained the 
ascendancy, they proceeded to help themselves. Vassily 
was responsible not only for arrears of pay to the 
Swedish troops, but for money lent by the Swedish king. 



A.D. 1613-1645.] WAR WITH POLAND. Ml 

When payment was asked Michael thought himself 
entitled to repudiate the obligation. Charles IX. was 
furiously incensed. He sent a strong army to exact both 
payment and revenge. Hardly had it set out when 
Charles died, and thus proceedings were delayed for a 
time. His son, Gustavus Adolphus, however, had no 
mind to relinquish the claim. Putting himself at the 
head of a second expedition, he soon acquired possession 
of the large district called Inghermanland, and reduced 
various strongly-fortified places. The Russian troops 
could make no stand against him, and Michael was fain 
to sue for peace. In the spring of 1617 the negotiations 
took shape in a treaty by which, in addition to handing 
over two hundred thousand roubles — the original cause 
of dispute — he ceded all the Russian territory up to the 
line of the Lava. This was a severe loss, and a terrible 
humiliation. 

War with Poland. — Even worse was his fortune in 
the case of Poland. King Sigismund had acquiesced, with 
the best grace that was possible for him, in the settle- 
ment of affairs by which Michael was raised to the throne. 
Yet he felt very poignantly the discomfiture of his plans 
and the disgrace that had been inflicted upon his son. 
When the rupture with Sweden occurred he was ready 
to take avail of it for his own behoof. This he did in 
rather a treacherous mode, by declaring a separate war 
upon his weakened and preoccupied adversary. No great 
success attended his endeavours. He was baffled and 
beaten back ; but the victories which Michael gained 
seemed to him not worth their cost. Therefore he 
assented to a treaty which was to last for fourteen and a 
half years, by which he surrendered a large slice of ter- 
ritory. He seems to have thought this advantage was 
gained trickily, and to have cherislied a feeling of resent- 
ment and a purpose of retaliation. Unfortunately for 
himself, he condescended to tricky methods for carrying 
out his design. When King Sigismund died he conceited 
himself that he had found his chance. He then ostenta- 
tiously renounced the bargain to which he was piedgeu, 

G 



08 EI8TORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Tl 

and delivered a bold stroke for the recovery of what had 
been taken from him. It failed, however, as it deserved 
to fail. His forces were superior in numbers?, in equip- 
ment, and in handling, to those brought against them, 
yet they were utterly foiled. Instead of winning back 
what he had lost, he lost much more. Livonia, Esthonia, 
and Courland were taken from him. All that he was 
promised in exchange was the document announcing the 
election of Ladislas by the boyards in 1610. He evinced 
a lawyer-like anxiety to get possession of this deed, appa- 
rently from a fear that it might be used at some after 
time to gfr/e a semblance of validity to pretensions adverse 
to his own or those of his descendants. Either he betrayed 
an excessive solicitude, or those with whom he had to 
deal befooled him. Perhaps both elements entered into 
the case. At all events he never got the paper. The 
Poles said they did not value it, but that it had been 
either lost or burned. 

An Interregnum. — It soon appeared that the concern 
about the succession which prompted his wish was by no 
means misplaced. Though he had a long reign yet he 
lived a short life. He died at the early age of forty-nine. 
Considering what he had done for his country — the peace 
and well-being it had enjoyed, the respect and confidence 
in which he was held — it might have been supposed that 
he had left a smooth path for his heir. It was not so. 
The heir was a lad only fifteen years of age. His father 
had chosen for him a tutor and guide in the person of 
one Boris Morosoff, a noble of ability and influence. 
This man was fired by the idea that he could re-enact 
the part of Boris Godunoff with a success more complete 
and enduring. He devoted himself to the task most 
assiduously and most unscrupulously. He filled the 
court with his minions. The chief posts in the army 
were assigned to his favourites. He amassed enormous 
wealth, which he used for purposes of corruption. He 
induced the young Tsar, Alexis, to wed his wife's sister. 
He got himself recognised as the one centre of influence, 
the true depository of power. But he allowed his ulterior 



A.D. 16451696.] ALEXIS L 09 

aim to appear too quickly and plainly; and wMle over- 
precipitate he was also over-exacting. He sold mono- 
polies. He imposed a grinding taxation. He encouraged 
the judges in the imposition of large fines, the produce of 
which he shared with them. His tyranny became mon- 
strous, even as his ambition became evident. The in- 
habitants of Novgorod rose in revolt. The inhabitants 
of Moscow were also ripe for rebellion, when a fortunate 
incident averted the temptation, and perhaps saved the 
monarchy. Alexis was intercepted one day as he came 
from church, had a number of moving petitions addressed 
to him, was told how often and urgently relief from the 
alleged grievances had been asked, and was assured that 
he was not personally blamed for the infliction or con- 
tinuance of the evils under which the petitioners smarted. 
The interview aroused the man to a new sense of respon- 
sibility and of power. Morosoff was exiled, clamorous 
requests for his execution being peremptorily refused, 
and from that time Alexis was his own prime minister. 

Alexis I. (1645-1696). — He ruled wisely and happily. 
In domestic affairs he followed his father's example. 
In many respects he bettered it. The resources of Russia 
acquired a prodigious development in his time. He 
established a mounted postal service only a few years 
after England had become accustomed to it. He caused 
treatises on mathematics, geography, and military science 
to be translated and studied. He tried to introduce the 
manufacture of silk and of linens. He encouraged the 
working of iron and copper mines. He brought ship- 
wrights from Amsterdam, with the intention of building 
a merchant fleet for the navigation of the Caspian Sea ; 
and it was the sight of a pleasure-boat, constructed under 
his orders, that inspired his son, Peter the Great, with 
the enthusiasm he showed in the same direction. And 
he convoked a general assembly of the States, such as had 
not been convened since his father had been elected, in 
order to consult with them upon various reforms which 
he was anxious to carry through, notably upon a revision 
of the existing code of laws, which at his instance was 



100 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI. 

simplified and amended in a very remarkable manner. 
No one can refuse to see in this proceeding the nascent 
possibilities of a representative system, the growth of 
which would have given Alexis a higher fame than 
belongs to him, while it would have mightily altered the 
complexion of Russian and of European history. 

In his foreign policy he was largely fortunate. He 
disliked war, but he seldom fought without gaining his 
end. In this respect, a«nd especially in his contests with 
Poland and Sweden, he was much more lucky than his 
father. He retrieved the major part of his losses at a 
very small expenditure of effort, and some of his conquests 
had very wide and far-reaching consequences. Hostilities 
with Poland broke out in 1654. They were undertaken 
in alliance with the Cossacks of the Dnieper and the 
Ukraine. For more than a century their kinsfolk, the 
Cossacks of the Don, had been feudatories of Pussia, but 
*hey had placed themselves under Polish protection. By 
the Poles they were excessively ill-used. No sort of 
regard was paid to their traditions and peculiarities. 
They were subjected to heavy and galling exactions. 
Their lands were parcelled out into estates for the great 
nobles, who made it their sole concern to raise as large a 
revenue as possible. For this purpose they farmed out 
the collection of their rents to middlemen, among whom 
were many Jews, well skilled in acquiring a double 
profit. The marvel is, not that a revolt came, but that 
it should have been so long delayed. When it did come 
it was formidable and decisive. Its origin and progress 
were on this wise. 

Alliance with the Southern Cossacks. — A veteran 
chief named Bogdan had been subjected to very oppressive 
treatment. He roused his people to sympathy with his 
w rongs and to a purpose of vengeance. A mission to the 
Khan of the Crimea was successful in procuring his co- 
operation. Very soon Bogdan was at the head of a powerful 
force, the Tartar contingent of which was forty thousand 
strong. He speedily overran the province of the Ukraine, 
twice over defeating the army sent to withstand Lim, ac- 



A.D. 1645-1696.] ALLIANCE WITH SOUTHERN COSSACKS. 101 

quiring numerous accessions to his forces as he advanced, 
and gaining a position whence he might have struck a blow 
at the capital. At this juncture King Ladislas died, and 
the diet was convened for the election of his successor. 
Bogdan encamped at Zamosk, pending the deliberations 
which led to the choice of John Casimir. At first it 
seemed as if his magnanimity was to receive a suitable 
reward. The new king frankly admitted the enormity 
3f the wrongs he had endured, and tendered a promise of 
redress. At the same time, while he was thus lulled 
into security, the general in command of the Polish troops 
perfidiously invaded his camp, committing terrible havoc. 
Bogdan escaped with a considerable part of his following, 
which he soon recruited to more than its former strength, 
and led back to wreak a hatred'more implacable and vindic- 
tive than ever. Again the diplomacy of the wily kin^ 
proved too much for him. The Tartars were detached 
from his cause and induced to go home. Consequent on 
their defection he made suit to Alexis for help. Tiie 
bribe held out in exchange was a tempting one — that the 
Cossacks would transfer their allegiance to him. Alexis 
was not insensible to the value of such an acquisition, 
nor to the chance of recovering from Poland the provinces 
his father had lost. Nevertheless he was very chary 
about moving. It required the strongest incitements 
from the clergy, and those in whom he trusted, to make 
him stir. When he did move it was to enter upon a 
conquering march. Kief, Tchernigoff, Smolensko, were 
soon in his possession. So rapid and wide were his con- 
quests that Swedish jealousy was excited, and King 
Charles G-ustavus thought it necessary to strike in against 
Poland also. 

He entered Pomerania at the head of a small force, 
and found his advance as easy as that of the Russians had 
been. The Polish sovereign fled to Silesia, and every- 
where between Courland and the Carpathians the Swedes 
were received with ready submission. Could the victors 
have agreed the events of history might have been ante- 
dated, and Poland been then divided betwixt them. 



102 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. YI, 

Alexis was greatly indisposed to meddle with the rival 
invader, so long as he was himself let alone ; but the 
action of the Lithuanians, in casting off his authority for 
Swedish protection, led him to deliver a counter-stroke. 
He made an incursion to an undefended part of Sweden, 
laying waste the country, sacking the villages, and put- 
ting the inhabitants to the sword. He seems, however, 
to have been afraid of the chastisement this inroad was 
fitted to provoke; he shrunk from an encounter with the 
veteran troops of the " Thirty Years' War ;" and he was 
fain to arrange a truce for three years. It formed the 
basis of an arrangement which was ratified at Kardis in 
1661, by which time the Poles had recovered strength, 
and were engaged in a desperate grapple with Sweden. 
It endured for well-nigh half a dozen years, up to the 
treaty of Andrussoff, which was concluded in 1667. To 
that settlement Russia, though she had scrupulously held 
aloof from the later quarrel, was a party, and by it she 
became a great gainer. All that she had won back at 
the outset of the strife was confirmed in her possession, 
and her authority over the Cossacks of the Dneiper 
received formal acknowledgment. They were joined 
spontaneously by their brethren, the Zaporofskian Cos- 
sacks, and it is probable that the whole of these com- 
munities might then have come under Russian sway, had 
it not been for a difficulty that arose with the most loyal, 
gallant, and powerful among them, the Cossacks of the 
Don. 

Quarrel with the Cossacks of the Don. — These 
people were then in the condition they were found by Dr. 
Clarke a century later, before the legislation of Alexander 
I. Bold, hardy, independent, severe in their morals, 
thrifty in their mode of life, good farmers, capital riders, 
famous marksmen, they were allowed to govern them- 
selves after their own fashion, and were dangerous to 
meddle with. A Russian commander, Dalgoruki, had 
behaved to them in an overbearing manner, and caused a 
brother of their hetman, Stenko Radziin, to be executed. 
The maltreatment of Bogdan, which alienated the Cos* 



A.D. 1645-1696.] VIEWS AS TO TURKEY. 103 

sacks of the Dneiper from Poland, did not create anything 
like the commotion and anger which this act excited. 
It led to an insurrection on a great scale. At the head 
of a large army Stenko devastated the valley of the 
Volga, overran Astrakhan, and is said to have entertained 
the idea of setting up as an independent monarch. While 
he dallied with this project Dalgoruki defeated his forces, 
and obtained an interview with himself. It was repre- 
sented to him that the Tsar was anxious to confer with 
him personally. Accepting this assurance he went will- 
ingly to Moscow. There he was executed as a rebel. 
Those of his followers who accompanied him shared his 
fate. A feeble attempt of his countrymen to continue 
the struggle, and to avenge his death, was visited by a 
terrible retribution. The terror which the risino; had 
caused was shown by the remorseless severity with which 
it was suppressed. It is said that twelve thousand Cos- 
sacks were gibbeted along the roadsides. This ruthless 
conduct was successful in its main object. The popula- 
tion were utterly cowed, although it was deemed wise, 
as soon as they submitted, to leave them alone. Their 
kinsfolk to the south, however, who meditated a revolt 
from the Polish yoke, were scared from coming under 
that of Russia. They preferred to make a proffer of their 
allegiance to the sultan, Mohammed IV. By him it was 
eagerly accepted, the acceptance leading up to that 
Polo-Turkish war in which the imbecile Michael, who 
succeeded John Casimir, bought off attack by ceding to 
Turkey the whole of Podolia and the Polish portion of 
the Ukraine. 

Views as to Turkey. — The diet repudiated this bargain, 
entrusted John Sobieski with the task of reversing it, and 
called upon Russia, in compliance with the treaty of An- 
drussoff, to give her help to the enterprise. Alexis did not 
refuse, though he was in no hurry to fulfil his obligation. 
He interfered so far on his own account as to demand that 
the Turks should give back Azoff, which they h<id taken 
from his Cossacks in 1642; and then, while his army 
was being organised, he sent a representation to the chief 



104 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI, 

European powers of the peril that menaced Christendom, 
pointing out how much their interest in averting it 
exceeded that of Russia, and proposing the formation of 
a common league against the Ottoman power. It was a 
sagacious and statesmanlike proposition, even if there 
was in it some amount of selfishness. No response was 
vouchsafed, though a few years later its wisdom would 
have been generally acknowledged. Meanwhile Sobieski 
gained the great fight of Choczine, and was then recalled 
to assist in choosing a new king; while on the 10th of 
February, 1676, Alexis died. 

The Reign of Feodor (1676-1682).— He left three 
sons, two of them, Feodor and Ivan, children by his 
first consort, the third, Peter, born to him by his 
second, Natalia Narishkin. She made a bold attempt 
to have her own boy, then an infant three years old, 
appointed to the succession, on the ground that his 
half-brothers were imbecile. Ivan was weak-minded, 
but Feodor's feebleness was only physical. The scheme 
for setting him aside was frustrated. At the age of 
nineteen, amid general good-will, he ascended the throne. 
His reign was short, but not unimportant. The war 
with the Turks was prosecuted rather more energetically 
than in his father's time. Considerable successes attended 
the Russian arms. Their adversaries suffered terribly 
from the climate* Besides, they were" made desirous for 
an accommodation in order that they might be free to 
strike for an object of much greater magnitude than any- 
thing then involved in their quarrel with Russia. The 
foolish policy of Leopold L, the German emperor, and 
the ceaseless machinations of Louis XIV. of France, had 
inspired the Sultan and his Vizier, Kara Mustapha, with 
the idea of annexing Hungary and South Germany. 
Preparations for that design were now on foot. In view 
of it an easy assent was given to terms that would other- 
wise have been scouted. By the peace of Radzin, con- 
eluded in 1680, Russia was enabled to advance her 
frontier southward on the condition that she would 
refrain from erecting fortifications between the Boug ami 



A.D. 1682-1689.] REGENCY OP SOPHIA. 105 

the Dneister. At the same time the Cossacks, who had 
proffered their services to Turkey, feeling themselves 
despised and cast off, went over to her antagonist, whom 
they have ever since served with remarkable fidelity. 

The Regency of Sophia (1682-1689). — Feodor applied 
his mind to the duties of government with an assiduity and 
vigour that sufficiently belied the reports of his incapacity. 
He carried through sundry notable innovations of a bene- 
ficial character against very determined resistance. But 
his mental activity was too much for his bodily strength, 
and he died childless after having filled the throne fcr 
six years. Before his death he acquiesced in the proposal 
that his half-brother, Peter, should be his successor. This 
arrangement was vehemently contested on Ivan's behalf 
by his sister Sophia. A woman of great personal beauty, 
she was also endowed with a masculine vigour of intellect 
and tenacity of purpose. She seems to have loved Ivan 
with an attachment that derived strength even from his 
silliness. The idea of passing him over she resented, not 
only as a wrong to him, but as a slight to herself, and to 
all her mother's family. Her enthusiasm, her eloquence, 
her earnestness gained many friends for the cause she 
championed. Still, the Narishkin influence was potent; 
and, in order to overcome it, she resorted to a hazardous 
expedient. She convened the chiefs of the select legion 
formed by Ivan the Terrible, now known as the Strelitzes, 
and put her case into their hands, supporting it by the 
fervid importunities of her tongue, by the more moving 
eloquence of her tears, by lavish gifts of money in hand, 
and by yet more lavish promises of future recompense. 
She gained her point for the time. The Strelitzes took 
possession of the capital, forced the Narishkin? to flee, 
and pursued mother and son so closely that they barely 
saved their lives by finding refuge in the convent of the 
Holy Trinity. There is no proof that Sophia wished 
them murdered. Upon the contrary, even in the hour 
of her triumph, she consented to have Peter proclaimed 
as joint-sovereign. The regency fell to herself; and she. 
recalled to power her brother's prime councillor, Prince 



106 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Th 

Galitzin, a man with a great repute for ability and energy,, 
though his talent seems to have deserted him when a 
serious pinch came. 

Presuming upon the services they had rendered, the 
Strelitzes waxed arrogant and domineering to an intoler- 
able degree. They acted as if the regent was wholly at 
their mercy. Their cupidity prompted demands which 
her wealth could not satisfy, while their lust of power 
made them insist upon claims compliance with which 
would have made her their tool or their screen. She 
was not the woman to be thus ordered or superseded, 
but she kept down her wrath till their commandant 
impudently insisted upon getting her younger sister for 
his wife. Then it burst forth in a manner which goaded 
its victim to attempt his worst. She was prepared for 
his effort, and defeated it. The Strelitzes were over- 
powered, and every tenth man of them was ordered for 
execution. At the last moment, however, Sophia can- 
celled the sentence. A few of them were sent away to 
serve with regiments stationed on the distant frontiers, 
but a general pardon was accorded to the rest. It did 
not quiet their malicious and convulsive hostility. A 
second rising was soon organised. Again it was met and 
subdued with intelligent firmness. Again a free pardon 
was granted to the mutineers, though the ringleaders 
had to sue for it in the great square of the Kremlin, 
where they appeared for the purpose with ropes about 
their necks, ignorant whether they would be strung up 
or let go. 

Apart from these disturbances Sophia's government 
was fairly prosperous. A religious controversy arose 
over certain innovations introduced by the Patriarch 
Nikon, which were vehemently resisted by the old ortho- 
dox party. It had a lasting effect upon the country; but 
left her unaffected. She was not so fortunate as regards 
a war into which she was forced. The Tartars of the 
Crimea, in 1688, made another of their expeditions against 
Poland. As aforetime, the Poles appealed to Russia for 
assistance under the treaty of Andrussoff, which still 



A.D. 16821689.] EDUCATION OP PETER. 107 

remained in force. Sophia was averse to interference, 
her disposition being, as her father's certainly would 
have been, to hold aloof, leaving the combatants to 
weaken and despoil each other; but Galitzin had imbibed 
strong ideas as to the need of intervention, and the 
advantages that would accrue from it. Like many a 
clever man he made a huge mistake. His ideas of policy 
seem to have been twisted by his personal predilections, 
for, although no soldier, he took the leadership of the 
army which he organised for the invasion of the Crimea. 
He never reached the peninsula. When he got to the 
Isthmus of Perekop in the late autumn, it was to fina 
that the retreating Tartars had set tire to the rank dry 
grass of the steppes, and had turned the country into a 
desert over which advance was impossible. Next year 
he fared no better. At the same place he came upon a 
powerful Ottoman army, who not only barred his passage, 
but drove him back with tremendous loss. As lying 
bulletins had been distributed representing his progress 
as a continuous triumph, the revelation of the unwelcome 
truth, which was made worse by sundry attempts to 
gloss over the facts, had a very disastrous effect. 

Education of Peter the Great. — The course of events 
had no more diligent and reflective student than the 
young joint-emperor Peter, now in his seventeenth year. 
By this time he had developed a remarkable degree of 
shrewd insight, stubborn self-will, and patient courage, 
mated with curious dashes of passionate temper and wild 
self-indulgence. He had been sent off to an obscure 
village with a set of boisterous companions, named his 
" amusers." They were left to do as they liked, and it 
can hardly be doubted that the hope was the boy would 
be so corrupted and engrossed that all regard for the 
cares and duties of his position would be deadened within 
him. It was not so, partly by reason of the strong 
though wayward genius which he possessed, partly be- 
cause of the instruction he received from one of his 
companions, an adventurer named Lefort. 

This man was more than double his pupil's age when 



108 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. V* 

he forced his way into the circle of which Peter was the 
centre. The latter half of his life had been a constant 
whirl of vicissitude, comprising many marvellous adven- 
tures, many hairbreadth escapes. He was a veritable 
citizen of the world. Born at Geneva, he had been 
placed in a mercantile situation; but he neglected his 
work, spent his money, and ran away. He took service 
in the French army, where his behaviour did not 
improve, and finding the employment irksome, he took 
French leave of it. Hiding himself on board a ship, he 
was carried from Marseilles to Holland. There he 
suffered such straits that sheer necessity forced him to 
join a body of troops that were being raised for the Tsar 
Alexis. With them he went to Archangel, where, when 
Alexis died, they were left, utterly forgotten, or at least 
unheeded. He used his abundant leisure to add an 
acquaintance with Kuss to his knowledge of the French, 
German, and Dutch languages. Then he made his way 
to Moscow, where he became a favourite in society, 
married a rich wife, and resolved upon attaching himself 
to Peter. He succeeded at once in his design. The two 
became fast friends and almost inseparable companions, 
save when the younger man broke away now and again 
to indulge in a period of profligate or riotous amusement. 
His bouts of dissipation soon grew less frequent and of 
shorter duration, while they were always succeeded by a 
severe spell of work. It was his humour for a time to 
convert his companionship into a mimic army corps, and 
to place it under camp rules, which were enforced with 
scrupulous exactness. He entered as a drummer, and 
wrought his way up through all ranks. Not only was 
regimental discipline maintained, but the military art 
was carefully studied, especially in regard to fortification. 
Everything was done with exemplary thoroughness. In 
the performance Peter put his hand to shovel and wheel- 
barrow, and attached himself now to the besieging forces, 
and now to the besieged. The bent thus given to his 
disposition never left it. His native force of will, steady 
resolution, and ascendancy of character, were unques- 



A.D. 1682-1689.] PETER SEIZES THE THRONE. 109 

tionably developed and strengthened by this training, as 
well as the physical energy for which he became distin- 
guished. At the same time he received from Lefort 
other lessons that were not less important. His eyes were 
opened to the facts of life. He learned something of the 
outer world. He was made aware of his own position. 
This knowledge if it increased, as it certainly did, his 
tendency to wilfulness, also inspired him with purposes 
of high ambition and vast reach. His wilfulness was 
illustrated by the obstinacy with which he persisted in 
wedding Eudoxia, the daughter of a Colonel Lapuchin — - 
a marriage which turned out unhappily. His ambition 
was shown in the manner he took to dispossess his sister, 
and assert his own authority. 

Peter Seizes the Throne. — Sophia had regarded with 
a quiet scorn the employments to which he was addicted. 
She thought them boyish follies which had the good 
effect of keeping him from mischief. So long as he did 
not interfere with her she cared little what becam© of 
him. She was therefore puzzled and alarmed when he 
began to present himself at the council, to insist upon 
being informed of what was taking place, to gainsay her 
wishes, and to dispute her policy. With the swiftness of 
feminine comprehension she discerned how mistaken and 
heedless she had been, read off his purposes, and per- 
ceived hew easy would be their accomplishment. At all 
hazards she resolved to forestall him. Her project was to 
shut him up in prison. In order to effect his capture, 
she stooped to entreat the aid of her old allies the 
Strelitzes. Six hundred legionaries were sent out to 
seize him; but they came back with their errand unful- 
filled, A hint of the design had been communicated to 
his followers; a stout resistance was offered to the band; 
and, in the confusion, Peter made his escape to his early 
refuge, the convent of the Holy Trinity. From thence 
he issued a manifesto denouncing the usurpation of his 
proper authority, and appealing to the loyalty of his 
subjects to aid him in redressing their wrongs. Sophia 
proposed as a compromise, that, while he should be 



110 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI. 

recognised as sovereign, she, as the representative of 
Ivan, should share his power. This suggestion was 
scouted, and the mediators, whom she sent as its advo- 
cates, remained as the partisans of Peter's exclusive 
claims. She then besought a personal interview; but 
some of his advisers knew what cause there was to dread 
her influence, and the request was refused. The mob 
now turned against her, instigated by reports that she 
had sought to take her brother's life. Nothing remained 
but submission or flight. She tried to make her escape 
to Poland; but was caught on the road, separated from 
her friends, forced into a convent, and stripped of all 
authority. Prince Galitzin was degraded, and banished 
to Archangel. The chief of the Strelitzes was beheaded. 
The knout and Siberia became the doom of others. From 
1689 Peter reigned without a rival; for though Ivan lived, 
during the next seven years, and his name continued to 
be associated in tlj* sovereignty, he exerted no sfjd of 
influence upon affairs. 

Creation of an Army. — At once the new Tsar devoted 
himself to the creation of an army. Except a few regi- 
ments maintained at frontier posts, the Strelitzes were 
the only permanent soldiers in the empire. To Lefort), 
and to General Patrick Gordon, a Scot, were entrusted 
the task of procuring foreign levies who might become 
the nucleus of a native military force. Lefort obtained 
the services of some three hundred fugitive Huguenots. 
Gordon was successful in recruiting a still larger number 
of his own countrymen. Thus aided, the two were soon 
able to gratify the imperial desire. A standing army 
was brought together respectable in its numbers, its 
equipment, and its organization. 

Formation of a Navy. — To form a navy was the Tsar's 
next resolution, though one of more gradual growth. 
The rotting remains of the pleasure-boat which his 
father had placed upon a lake in the gardens of Imaeloff 
struck his observant eye. A Dutch ship-carpenter was 
found in Moscow who undertook its reconstruction. 
Peter evinced what might have seemed a childish delight 



A.D. 1682-1689.] FORMATION OP A NAVY. Ill 

in the work, and in its result. He never tired of sailing 
in this tiny craft; had others of a larger size built; and 
got himself educated to seamanship in connection with 
his miniature fleet as he had formerly learned soldiering 
with his playmates. In 1693 he visited Archangel, and 
first saw the ocean. He spent that summer and the 
next cruising about in English and Dutch vessels, mak- 
ing himself familiar with the duties of every one on 
board, from the man at the mast upwards. His persever- 
ance is the more remarkable because he had a nervous 
dread of water. He could not for a long while embark 
upon it without breaking forth into a cold sweat, which 
ended in violent spasms. His force of will was called 
upon to subdue this weakness. He accustomed himself 
to a daily use of the cold bath; he extended his 
voyages and kept longer afloat; and at last he acquired 
the delight of a genuine sailor in feeling the waves bound 
beneath him. 

The White Sea is frozen for half the year. Archangel 
is thus precluded from becoming a great port. Peter 
understood this, and lamented it. He understood also 
that the Caspian, to which he had access, being no more 
than a land-locked lake, could not be so utilised as to remedy 
the complaint he expressed in a saying which was often 
on his lips, "Russia has too much land without water." 
Nevertheless, he determined to see what could be done 
on that behalf. This purpose first led him to visit the 
southern part of his dominions. It led, at the same time, 
to his first experience of war. He renewed the demand 
which his father had preferred for the restitution of 
Azoff", and as the Turks refused compliance, he resolved 
to enforce it. Gordon and Lefort were placed in com- 
mand of his troops, he himself serving as a volunteer. 
After a protracted siege, an attempt, which was defeated 
with great loss, was made to storm the place. Next year 
another effort was put forth with more adequate means 
and preparation. By incredible exertions a flotilla, in 
the construction of which Dutch and Venetian shin- 
Wrights were employed, had been launched. However 



112 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VL 

much the reverse of formidable it may have been, it 

sufficed to prevent the Turks from provisioning the place 
by sea. Half the land forces were detached for the 
frustration of any attempt to give succour otherwise. 
Upon them the hardest portion of the task fell, for 
they had repeatedly to fling back expeditions sent from 
the Crimea with that object. By the end of July the 
place was starved into capitulation. The victors were 
greeted with immense enthusiasm when they returned to 
Moscow. They made a triumphal entry, planned by 
Peter, though he assigned himself an obscure place. 

Escape from Murder. — Soon afterwards his extra- 
ordinary presence of mind was illustrated in a narrow 
escape from murder. The bold innovations he had made, 
though the mere prelude to vastly more extensive ohanges, 
had been viewed with disrelish by many of his subjects. 
The Strelitzes, whv had grievances of their own, arising 
out of their subjection to regular discipline, were parti- 
cularly active in fostering discontent. At last 'r.hey 
formed a scheme for assassinating Peter and restoring 
Sophia. The plot was divulged on the night fixed for 
its execution. Peter wrote an order to have the house 
where the conspirators were to meet surrounded by 
troops at eleven o'clock. Through mistake he inserted 
this hour instead of ten, as he had intended. Shortly 
after ten he repaired to the place, and found to his 
astonishment no soldiers there. Assuming that they 
must be inside, he entered to see what they had done. 
He thus walked into the midst of the conclave who 
were pledging themselves to his death. Though much 
taken aback, their confusion far exceeded his. He ex- 
plained that he had seen the lights, and heard the sounds 
of merriment, and that it had occurred to him he would 
like with their permission to join them, adding a hope 
his presence would not disturb their enjoyment. So 
saying, he seated himself at the table, drank to their 
healths, and soon had them engaged in a course of 
carousal and compliment, which was kept up till the 
arrival of the soldiers enabled him to drop the mask of 



a.d. 1682-1689.] peter's European tour. 113 

hypocritical complaisance he had worn so cleverly. For- 
tunate was it for the commander of the troops that the 
order he had received was distinct, and terrible was the 
punishment inflicted upon the duped revellers. 

He Visits Western Countries. — In the summer of 
1697 Peter started upon an European tour. He travelled 
as one of an extraordinary embassy headed by Lefort and 
another companion. Proceeding through Esthonia and 
Livonia, of which provinces they made a careful exami- 
nation, they pushed through North Germany to Holland. 
At Amsterdam they made a considerable stay. Here, 
greatly to Peter's rage, the secret of his identity was 
discovered, and the freedom of his movements was hin- 
dered by crowds of curious people who flocked about 
him. He outwitted them, however, by donning a deeper 
disguise, calling himself Peter Timrnerman, the name of 
his mathematical tutor, and hiring himself out to work 
as a common ship-carpenter at Saardam. He took a 
turn at everything that had to be done — rope-making, 
sail-making, blacksmith work, as well as carpentry. He 
associated freely with his fellow-labourers, lived like 
them, dressed like them, drank with them, did his work 
as well as the best of them, and accepted his wages with 
perhaps less of grumbling. 

From Holland he crossed to Britain. He was hugely 
delighted with his reception, and especially with a 
beautiful yacht which William III. presented to him. 
He did not seek to conceal his rank here; yet he plied 
his craft of shipbuilder both at Potherhithe and Deptford, 
where vessels were being constructed to his order. This 
enjoyment he alternated with other gratifications. A 
public-house near Towerhill was a favourite resort for a 
pot and a pipe; and the Marquis of Carmarthen he 
deemed a splendid fellow, because he was able to sit him 
out while they drank brandy mixed with pepper, their 
debauch lasting a whole night. Yet the amazing versa- 
tility and splendid purpose of the man were exemplified 
as strikingly as his disposition to wild excess. Hia 
interest in useful and refining studies was made manifest 

H 



114 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. YI. 

by an assiduous attendance upon certain systematic 
courses of instruction, as well as by the keen insight 
with which he canvassed the tuition he received, and the 
puzzling questions with which he tormented his instruc- 
tors. His attention was specially turned to his old study 
of fortification, as to which he had his views expanded 
and corrected; astronomy, also, was a branch of science to 
which he gave himself with a peculiar zest; while 
chemistry and anatomy excited an interest in him which 
they never lost. Still, the ruling passion was strong; 
and he left Britain with the remark, " If I were not 
Emperor of Russia, I should desire to be a British 
Admiral." No doubt the perfect order observed on 
board a man-of-war, and the despotic authority which 
the captain exerts, were extremely to his taste. 

A Frightful Punishment. — When he left London he 
returned to Amsterdam, whence he made the best of his 
way to Vienna. There he had to talk with the German 
Emperor about the treaty which was afterwards framed 
and ratified at Carlowitz, while he wished to acquaint 
himself with the constitution and rules of the imperial 
army. It was his intention to visit Italy, but his travels 
were cut short by an intimation that the Strelitzes were 
again in revolt. They had refused an order to take up 
quarters on the frontiers of Poland, which was then 
convulsed by a double election to the throne. At once 
he hurried home, after eighteen months absence, to find 
that Gordon, who had been left in charge of the army, 
had subdued the mutiny, had arrested the offenders, and 
was detaining them to await the punishment it might 
please the Tsar to adjudge. It was ferociously severe. 
Two thousand persons are said to have suffered death. 
Circumstantial accounts, put forth with the attestation 
of professed eye-witnesses, relate how Peter, in the case 
of the ringleaders, emulated the worst cruelties of Ivan 
the Terrible. He had them put to the torture in order 
to make them confess. Whether a confession was 
extorted or not, he found them guilty. Then, not con- 
tent with having acted the part of judge, he took that of 



A.D. 1682-1689.] INTERNAL REFORMS. 115 

executioner likewise. The story is told in the Memoirs 
of the Comte de Segur, how, " drunk with wine and 
blood, the glass in one hand, the axe in the other, in one 
single hour twenty successive libations marked the fall of 
twenty heads, which the emperor struck off, piquing 
himself on his horrible dexterity." This tale is also 
narrated by Voltaire, upon the authority of Frederick 
the Great, who said he had it from M. Printz, the 
Prussian ambassador at Moscow. One shudders to 
imagine such a frightful atrocity. Yet it is not out of 
keeping with what Peter is proved to have done other- 
wise. There is no evidence that his sister had anything 
to do with the disturbance except passively, as an object of 
hope to the insurgents ; but he had two hundred of them 
hung up in front of her windows, while a form of peti- 
tion that she should resume the crown was placed in the 
stiffened fingers of a corpse, the arm being then cut off 
and thrust in at her chamber-door. His young wife 
was also suspected; and, mindless of his own marital 
infidelities, he had her divorced and imprisoned, while 
her alleged lover was impaled. Of course the Strelitzes 
were disbanded. Their numbers had been woefully 
thinned; the curtailment of their privileges had checked 
the desire to join them; and their dispersion to different 
services in far-apart regions, so that they could have no 
communication, made an effectual end of them. 

Internal Reforms. — Rid of this trouble, the Tsar now 
turned the whole force of his mind upon the accomplish- 
ment of what he thought desirable reforms. His ideas 
were very comprehensive. They reached also to things 
that are very minute. Never was there such a combina- 
tion of what is vast, difficult, and far-reaching, with 
what is trivial, arbitrary, and sure to pass away speedily. 
It was hard to know in regard to which class of subjects 
the autocrat was most peremptory, or to which ideas 
his attachment would longest abide. He altered the 
mechanism of administration, at least in all its highest 
departments. He did what was more difficult, for, by 
the institution of what is called the "tchinn," he 



116 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI. 

changed the whole rules of society. Nothing was too 
great to withstand his revolutionary vigour, if it offered 
itself as an object of assault. Nothing was too small, did 
it chance to attract his regard, to escape his persistent 
hostility. He ordered every man to shave— -an edict 
which so wounded the feelings of the people, that many 
of them preserved the hair which was cut off their faces, 
in order that it mirdit be laid in their coffins. He insisted 
that tight-fitting clothes should be worn by all males 
— and the change from the wide-flowing garments of the 
east was to many as embarrassing as it was distasteful. 
Amusements were prescribed and regulated — aristocratic 
and rich families being forced to entertain their neigh- 
bours, who, in turn, contrary to old usage, were com- 
pelled to bring their wives and daughters with them. 
He established an uniform system of weights and meas- 
ures, and he reformed the calendar, making the year 
begin with the first of January instead of at the begin- 
ning of harvest — though, unhappily, he adopted the old 
Julian reckoning, which is eleven days behind the 
Gregorian. Taxation was increased and re-distributed — 
all exemptions being abolished, even those of the clergy. 
They were further irritated by a prohibition of monastic 
vows, except under certain very hard conditions — inso- 
much that some ardent membeis of the priesthood were 
moved to denounce Peter as the veritable antichrist. 
With seeming carelessness he held on the even tenor of 
his way, speedily widening the sphere of his recognised 
authority, bending all things within it to the despotism 
of his arbitrary will, and imposing upon them what he 
deemed the semblance of western civilization. 

St. Petersburg Founded. — One of his most character- 
istic works was the creation of a new capital, named 
after himself. St. Petersburg has a history such as can 
be matched by that of no other city. The site chosen 
for it was a mere swamp, at the edge of a recently-won 
conquest, and bordering a sea which the first breath of 
winter regularly congeals. The difficulties of construc- 
tion were enormous, for the ground had to be piled. 



A.D. 1682-1689.] ST. PETERSBURG FOUNDED. 



117 



stone had to be brought from a distance, and the whole 

process was so toilsome that, time after time, Peter's 
advisers counselled its abandonment as an impossible 
task, though he would never hear of it, impossibility 
being to him a word without meaning. More men were 
crowded on to the work; money was expended without 
stint; lives were sacrificed every whit as heedlessly; and 
in nine years the marsh, which had been the home of the 
bittern and the sea-mew, was covered by a spacious city, 




ST. PETERSBURG. 



having wharves, canals, bridges, and long rectilineal 
streets, lined by imposing buildings, many of them such 
as would be beautiful if seen through a keen Attic atmos- 
phere, though they are out of place where they stand. 
It is said that during these years 100,000 soldiers and 
work-people, who wei-e virtually slaves, perished conse- 
quent upon the severity of their toil, the rigours of the 
weather, and the scarcity of provisions. In 1714 the 
seat of government was shifted to the new metropolis, 
which was at the same time peopled by a forced migra- 



118 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Yl. 

fcion; but the advent of winter always sets some of its 
population flying southwards, and to this day. through 
all its splendours, every returning spring brings evidence 
that it is built on a morass. 

Catherine and Menschikoff. — The superintendence of 
this great scheme did not engross the energies of the 
Tsar. His versatility found other employments of 
widely different sorts. For one thing, he re-married. 
His life with Eudoxia Lapuchin, his first consort, had 
been unhappy. Her friends resisted and condemned those 
departures from traditional etiquette in which Peter 
delighted; and other causes bred domestic dispeace. In 
1696 the Tsarina was divorced and confined in a convent, 
a boyard named Gheloff, who was accused of being her 
lover, having been impaled. In a short while her place 
was filled by a Livonian peasant girl, who exerted a 
remarkable influence upon the fortunes of Russia. She 
was born in the small village of Ringhein. Her parents 
died while she was a child, leaving her poor and friend- 
less. The parish clerk in the neighbouring town of 
Marienburgh took pity upon her, received her into his 
house, giving her food, clothing, and some little educa- 
tion, in recompense for the share she took in the domestic 
drudgeries of his small establishment. She grew up a 
pretty girl, petite in figure, animated and engaging in 
manner, sweet-tempered, but a little self-willed. Falling 
in love with a Swedish dragoon who was quartered in 
the town, she insisted upon marrying him, though the 
fellow was under orders to leave, which he did next day, 
and was never heard of more. When Marienburgh was 
captured by the Russians she attracted the notice of 
General Bauer, who took her to live with him. Thence 
she was transferred to the protection of Prince Menschi- 
koff, a prime favourite with the Tsar, and a man whose 
rise had been as extraordinary as hers was to be. At 
fourteen years of age he came to Moscow in quest of 
work. He was taken as an apprentice into the shop of 
a pastry-cook. It was part of his duty to sell pies and 
patties in the streets. A handsome boy, with a fine 



a.d. 1682-1689.] peter's wars and aggressions. lid 

voice, and a knack of making rhymes, he was accustomed 
to recommend his wares in songs of his own composition. 
While thus engaged he drew the attention of Lefort, who 
took him into his service. So he came under the notice 
of the Tsar, who formed a great attachment to him. It 
was well deserved and well repaid. Menschikoff grew 
up a shrewd, capable, brave, and loyal man. He never 
overcame the defects of his early education, for he never 
learned either to read or write, and he had sundry foibles 
at which Peter was wont to laugh- — in particular, at his 
egregious vanity and his fondness for pomp, traits so 
much at variance with the simplicity of the Tsar's own 
habits. Yet the two understood each other; they 
remained fast and helpful friends; and in his later years 
no one except, indeed, Catherine had so much influence 
with Peter. She had been living with Menschikoff for 
about two years when she was transferred to the imperial 
pnlace. Entering it as a mistress, she soon ruled it as a 
wife. The Tsar's affection for her was genuine. In turn, 
she gave herself up to him with a complete devotion, 
amusing his leisure, soothing his fretfulness, allaying his 
most tempestuous gusts of passion, sharing in his coun- 
cils with an intelligence he respected, and participating 
in his dangers with a heroism that filled him with 
admiration and delight. 

Peter's Wars and Aggressions. — His wars were 
numerous, and in the main successful. He pursued a 
policy of aggression all round. He aimed at governing 
the Baltic and confining the Swedes to their peninsula; 
at fomenting the divisions of Poland in order to profit by 
the weakness they caused; at circumscribing the territory 
of the Ottoman empire, and subjecting to his own ascend- 
ancy the Christian populations that bore the yoke of 
Turks or Persians; at extending his commerce and his 
dominion to the far east; and at the same time acquiring 
weight and consideration in the affairs of the west. It 
was a comprehensive and difficult programme; but he 
laboured at every part of it with an amazing diligence 
and a remarkable success. By sheer pertinacity he 



120 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Tl. 

obtained from the Turk much better terms than the 
diplomatists who drew up the treaty of Carlowitz in 
1699 had formulated on his behalf, acquiring possession 
not only of Azoff, for which he had fought, but also seven 
leagues of territory in the direction of the river Kuban, 
while it wa» stipulated that the Tartars of the Crimea 
Bhould be restrained from those harassing incursions to 
which they were prone. Even this did not content him; 
he accepted the bargain as binding only for a limited 
period, and no sooner had it been concluded than he began 
arrangements for throwing it aside at a convenient oppor- 
tunity. The fortifications of Azoff were strengthened; 
those of Taganrog were builfc ; certain old works at 
Kamienska, on the Dnieper, were restored — all in viola- 
tion of the compact; while other menacing steps were 
taken that pointed clearly a purpose of further aggran- 
disement. Its execution was delayed consequent upon 
the outbreak of a Swedo-Polish war. 

Poland and Denmark thought they saw in the youth 
of Charles XII. a chance for recovering the territories 
which Sweden had reft from them. Peter was willing 
enough to co-operate for this end, provided he got Ingria 
and Carelia to himself. Upon these terms he raised an 
army and took possession of the provinces. Sweden 
acted against the confederacy with admirable promptitude. 
Before the Danes knew what they were about, Charles 
was before their capital, and had extorted from them a 
confirmation of his title to the disputed provinces of 
Schleswig and Holstein, as well as an indemnity for the 
trouble to which he had been put. Turning next upon 
the Poles, he suddenly swept them out of Livonia. For 
the Russians he professed an utter contempt; and the 
ease with which at Narva 8000 of his soldiers routed a 
force six times their number, no doubt tended to justify 
and to enhance his scorn. Peter was in the Polish 
capital when the battle was fought. He received the 
news of it with great composure. "The Swedes will 
teach us how to beat them," he observed; and the pre- 
diction speedily came true. 



A.D. 1682-1689.] INVASION >S BDSSIA. 121 

All the winter of 1701-2 wm spent in the most inde- 
fatigable preparations for a renew a 1 of the campaign. 
Troops were enlisted and drilled; cannon were cast; the 
Tsar threw all the enthusiasm of his nature into the 
work ; and he succeeded in kindling among his men 
something of his own ardour. He-entering Ingria as soon 
as the weather would permit of movement, he marched 
upon various points of vantage, forcing the Swedes to 
retire, beating them time after time in trivial skirmishes, 
and at last obtaining a decided victory over their main 
force, who were encountered at Dorpt. Very soon the 
whole province was in his possession up to the confines of 
Livonia. Leaving Menschikoff in charge as governor, 
Peter himself advanced upon Courland. Here he was 
defeated in his first onset, but rallying his troops and 
I" -ringing up reinforcements he obtained various successes, 
■w hich were consummated by the capitulation, in the early 
autumn, of the capital. 

Invasion of Russia by Charles XII. — Meantime 
Charles had pressed hard upon the Poles. The weak 
and fickle Augustus of Saxony he dethroned, setting up 
Stanislaus Lecinzky in his place. Peter, while sedulously 
guarding his own conquests, exerted all his powers of 
intrigue to rouse the Polish people, and especially the 
Polish grandees, against an acceptance of the new 
sovereign. His efforts had a measure of success suffi- 
cient to excite the wrath of the hot-tempered monarch 
of Sweden. The Swedish treasury was full ; Charles had 
a seasoned army of 50,000 men who had never known 
defeat; and he vowed that he would punish the presump- 
tuous interference of Peter by an invasion of his kingdom. 
The adoption of this resolve marks one of the most critical 
moments in Russian story. No one conceived that the 
Tsar would be able to withstand his assailant. The 
general impression was that his armies would be over- 
i/hi >wn, and he himself deposed. He 3iad no ally to whom 
de ou'd lof k for succour. The resources of Poland were 
o ue used against him. The Ottoman power was so 
os tile that he had reason to dread a would join his 



122 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI. 

antagonists, as indeed it would, had not the pride and 
self-confidence of Charles prompted him to disdain E;3ch 
help. His temper was illustrated by a remark he ad- 
dressed to the French ambassador at the court of Saxcny, 
who inquired if an accommodation was impossible. (t I 
will treat at Moscow," was the haughty response. When 
it was reported to Peter he quietly remarked, " My 
brother Charles wishes to play the part of an Alexander; 
he shall not find a Darius in me." 

His preparations for defence were made with the 
utmost care and forethought. Yet the patient sagacity 
he bestowed upon them was not incompatible with the 
exercise of great dash and swift decision. The conduct 
of his antagonist was highly favourable to a display of 
his best skill. Charles vapoured and dawdled, thinking, 
no doubt, that he could strike whenever it suited him. 
Peter planned and toiled with an anxious zeal that pc t 
all his faculties on the stretch. After Charles was ready 
to advance he suddenly called a halt, in order that he 
might visit at Dresden the Polish king whom he had dis- 
placed. This ostentatious proceeding made it necessary 
that his army should winter in Lithuania. Peter imme- 
diately advanced his forces to Grodno, in order that he 
might be able to contest every inch of the ground over 
which his adversary was to advance. At Grodno he 
made a narrow escape from capture. Charles heard of 
his arrival, ordered a sudden dash upon the place, gained 
admission by a ruse, and came so very near the attain- 
ment of his object, that, while he was entering at one 
gate, in all the pride of pomp, Peter was shuffling out in 
disguise at another. The case was very soon, however, 
almost completely reversed; for Charles, who was attended 
by a very small guard, took up his quarters at a Jesuit 
college, where he enjoyed himself heartily at the expense 
of the fathers who hated him, who found means to com- 
municate with Peter as to the weakness and negligence 
of his foe, and who thus brought on an attack which was 
as nearly successful as the previous surprise. 

When the regular campaign opened, Peter's strategy 



A.r. 1682-1689.] invasion op Russia. 123 

showed to great advantage. His force was twice as large 
as that of the invader. Yet he was very careful to avoid 
a pitched battle, knowing well that his raw recruits could 
no', stand against the disciplined battalions they had to 
meet. His hordes of Cossacks did admirable service in 
this emergency. They assailed the foe on all sides, and 
when they drew notice scampered off at a rate which 
made it impossible to catch or suppress them. More- 
over, they devastated the country all about, so that the 
Swedes, who had trusted for supplies to the territories 
they were to pass through, soon began to be pinched by 
straits. In these circumstances the advance was hin- 
dered; Charles was compelled to canton bis army in 
order to procure supplies from the rear; and the delay so 
chafed his spirit that he was betrayed into an irredeem- 
able act of folly. His true policy was to march upon 
Moscow and crush it. Instead, he suffered himself to be 
seduced upon a fool's errand away to the steppes of the 
Ukraine. 

The tempter was that Mazeppa, part of whose story 
has been made universally familiar by Lord Byron's 
poem. Originally a page at the court of John Casimir, 
he had provoked the jealousy of the nobleman he served, 
who had him bound naked to a wild horse, and sent 
adrift. He was carried from the centre of Poland away to 
the deserts of the Ukraine. The barbarous people showed 
him great kindness, and he was fain to make his abode 
with them. In their frequent contests with the Tartars 
he acquired much distinction, and by-and-bye he was 
made their hetman. A fancied slight, of which he was 
the object at Moscow when on a visit to the Tsar, filled 
him with inextinguishable hatred. He tried many 
methods of revenge, and when the war broke out he 
lighted upon one that he conceived would be more effica- 
cious than them all. He wrote to Charles offering to 
join him, should he come south, with all his people. The 
bait took; Charles struck away from his right path for a 
place of rendezvous in the province of Pultowa, near 
where the Drevna falls into the Dneiper. At first Peter 



124 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VL 

could scarcely credit the news. When the movement, and 
its motive, became clear he acted with his customary deci- 
sion, Mazeppa was superseded ; his accomplices when 
caught were put to death ; the strong places in which the 
insurgents might have found shelter were levelled; the 
loyalty of the population was appealed to with great 
effect; and when the leader of the revolt reached the 
appointed meeting-place, instead of arriving at the head 
of a formidable force, he appeared with only a few ill- 
equipped battalions. At the same time the Swedish force 
was terribly broken and distressed. General Lewenhauft, 
who brought up its rear, had much difficulty in making 
way at all. The Russians hung upon his track, clustered 
thick about him, interfered with his every movement, and 
forced him more than once to halt in order to strike back. 
At last they engaged him in a pitched battle which lasted 
two days. The Swedes fought with a desperate valour; 
but they were hopelessly outnumbered, and the number 
of their slain was very great. On the evening of the 
second day they rested behind their train of baggage 
waggons, which was drawn up as a defence. All night 
the gleam of their watch-fires was discernible from the 
Russian camp. In the morning it was found they had 
had made their escape, leaving their wounded, their artil- 
lery, and their stores behind. Not more than a third of 
them got away, so as to join their comrades. In the 
conflict the Tsar distinguished himself by his prowess 
and vigilance. It was the greatest contest his army had 
ever waged against regular troops; and he was much 
elated by the issue. 

The Battle of Pultowa. — Charles, meanwhile, was in 
a sorry plight. He had too small a force to retrieve the 
fortunes of the war, while yet it was too large for the 
amount of provisions he could collect. His advisers 
joined in urging that he should endeavour to get back to 
Poland; but he would have none of their counsel. He 
insisted that he meant to conquer the Ukraine as a pre- 
liminary to the subjugation of Russia. All through the 
winter, which was unusually protracted and severe, he 



A.D. 1682-1689.] BATTLE OP PULTOWA. 125 

abode where he was. When spring came, making move- 
ment possible, he marched in a south-easterly direction 
till he came to the barren territory that borders the 
region inhabited by the Cossacks of the Don. There his 
obstinacy gave way; and he was obliged to admit that 
there remained nothing for it but to retrace the steps 
that had been taken so wearily, without any intelligible 
object;. At the head of eighteen thousand jaded and dis- 
pirited troops he came back to the Ukraine, and sat down 
before the town of Pultowa, a fortified place on the banks 
of the Yorskla, from the line of which several mountain 
passes open on the road to Moscow. The garrison was 
small, and would speedily have been obliged to yield, but 
for the alacrity with which Peter advanced to its relief. 
He came at the head of fifty thousand men. By means 
of a dexterous feint, which called off the attention of the 
besiegers, he was enabled to throw into the town a rein- 
forcement of troops, and store of provisions. Having 
accomplished this, he turned to prepare for the decisive 
contest that was to ensue. 

His superiority in strength did not induce any relaxa- 
tion of wariness. He knew well that the conditions of 
the contest were not so unequal as at first sight they 
appeared. The Swedish troops were veteran soldiers. 
They had confidence in their leader, who had never been 
personally discomfited. The magnitude of the danger 
which now threatened him exerted a special call upon 
his genius, and ensured that his followers, who were 
alive to the perils of their situation, would fight with a 
determination equal to their vigour. Before the battle 
began, Peter gained a great advantage by choice of 
ground. He threw his troops across the peninsula formed 
by the Dnieper and the Yorskla, confining his antagonist 
to the acute angle of it. He drew up his army in two 
lines, his cavalry being held in reserve, while his Hanks 
were protected by redoubts carrying artillery. These 
arrangements he was suffered to carry through without 
molestation, for Charles was confined to his tent during 
some days by reason of a wound in the foot received in a 



126 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VL 

skirmish under the walls of the town. As soon as he 
was allowed outside, he directed that the enemy should 
be at once assailed. His orders were given from a litter 
in which he was carried to the field. When it was 
knocked from under him by a cannon ball, he was hoisted 
on a platform, which was borne aloft on the pikes of four 
soldiers. After a time the Russian first line was broken 
in more than one place, and began to give way ; but the 
second was immediately hurled upon the wearied victors. 
Its weight drove them back • and as they gave ground 
the pressure increased, till they were at last penned into 
the narrow corner formed by the junction of the two 
streams. Here they were fixed as in a trap. It was 
impossible to fight longer, and it was almost as impossible 
to flee. Many who tried to get away were drowned. 
Those who did escape managed to carry Charles with 
them. Guided by Mazeppa he made for Oczakoff, on 
Turkish territory, remaining for years a refugee, though 
an exceedingly troublesome one. 

Peter had behaved with an intrepedity equal to that 
of his rival. He exposed himself in the most heroic 
fashion, and had two extraordinary escapes from death. 
His hat was pierced by one ball, and his saddle was 
struck by another. When the victory was won he 
exclaimed, " Now has the son of the morning fallen from 
heaven, and the foundations of St. Petersburg stand 
firm." He did not exaggerate the meaning of his triumph. 
With reason is the contest waged on that 8 th of July, 
1709, reckoned among "the decisive battles of the world." 
It abased the power of Sweden, which was then very 
great, in a manner from which she has never recovered. 
It brought upon the European stage, almost for the first 
time, a new rival, whom she had hitherto checked and 
kept at bay. It led up to the acquisition by Russia 
of the Baltic provinces she has ever since possessed. 
Amid the multifarious activities and vicissitudes of his 
career, this was an object Peter kept steadily in view, 
and followed up with most persistent resolution. Time 
after time, now with one ally, now with another, and 



A.D. 1721.] NEW WAR WITH TURKEY. 127 

then alone, at one time by land, at another time by sea 
(where he served as rear-admiral, being duly promoted to 
the rank of vice-admiral, after gaining a victory over a 
Swedish fleet off the island of Elend), he renewed his 
aggressions, carrying them farther and farther, till at 
last, by the peace of ISTystadt, concluded in 1721, there 
was ceded to him the whole of Livonia and Esthonia, 
with great part of Finland. It shows his eagerness to 
grasp this enlargement of empire that he should have 
consented, for himself and his successors, to acknowledge 
the preponderance, throughout Livonia and Esthonia, of 
the Lutheran religion, of the German law and language, 
and of the subsisting hereditary constitution. Up till a 
very recent date this bargain was faithfully observed. 
The consequences have been very extraordinary. In 
each province the mass of the population belongs to one 
race — Lithuanians, Letts, and Fins. In each there is an 
ascendant minority of a different race, who have given a 
peculiar colour to the prevailing civilization — Poles, 
Germans, and Swedes. At the top there is a third 
power, foreign to all the rest in origin, speech, manners, 
and ideas. In 1868 an attempt was made to Russianise 
them, by introducing the Greek religion and making Russ 
the language of law and administration; but the design has 
had little success, German influences remaining supreme. 
A New War with Turkey. — Immediately after Pul- 
towa, the agents of Charles began to stir up Turkish 
enmity against Peter. An active and influential party 
in the Divan at Constantinople remained in favour of 
fighting him. Chief among them was the Sultan's 
mother, who perpetually asked her son, " when would he 
help her lion against the bear?" Sultan Achmet was 
desirous of maintaining peace; but such was the pressure 
urged upon him, such were the representations of Russian 
menace with which he was plied, that the task became 
one of exceeding difficulty. The Khan of the Crimea 
was incessant in his complaints of proceedings that 
threatened his territory. From the other side came 
allegations that the Slavonic and Grseco- Christian inha- 



128 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI « 

bitants oi Mjlchvia and Wallachia. were being excited 
against the Porte. A spirit of warlike enthusiasm ani- 
mated the people and carried away the Grand Vizier. 
At last, account being taken of Peter's engagement in 
north-western Europe, it was resolved to assail him. 

However indisposed to hostilities, Peter lost no time in 
taking up the quarrel. He hurried from the scene of his 
operations against Sweden to Moscow, where he made 
fresh arrangements for the conduct of the government in 
his absence. He would have been content to delegate 
the superintendence of affairs to Catherine, his private 
marriage with whom, said to have been celebrated four 
years before, was now first avowed; but she insisted upon 
going with him, and he would not balk her of her wish. 
The counter declaration of war to that issued by Turkey 
was solemnly proclaimed in the principal churches. It 
described the contest as one in defence of religion. Everv 
effort was made to arouse the feelings of the people upon 
that score. Red standards we^ distributed to the army, 
bearing on one side the motto, "In the name of God, and 
for the cause of Christianity," while on the other there 
was displayed a cross, with Constantine's well-known 
inscription underneath it, "By this we conquer." The 
enthusiasm excited was widespread and intense. It 
extended far beyond the bounds of the empire. It was 
fostered and sustained by a rumour, often revived since, 
that in the tomb of Constantine there had been dis- 
covered a prediction that the Russians would chase the 
Turks from the city he had founded. In a word, there 
was brought into play for the first time the subtle influ- 
ences of religion, lineage, and destiny, which have been 
appealed to with large effect in the later history of the 
two countries. On this occasion, however, they were 
appealed to in vain. 

The campaign was, from first to last, the most disas- 
trous Peter ever knew. His plans were formed with all 
his accustomed comprehension and foresight, they were 
acted upon with his characteristic energy and decision, 
ind yet they broke down hopelessly at every critical 



A.&. 1721.] NEW WAR WITH TURKEY. 129 

juncture. He started on his southward way at the head 
of eighty thousand men, but he expected to be joined ere 
he left his own dominions by forty thousand more, who 
never appeared. He had intrigued with the Hospodars 
of both Moldavia and Wallachia, receiving engagements 
of support from both, while playing off the one against 
the other ; but he was thus made the victim of a double 
treachery, for the Hospodar of Wallachia, being suspected 
by the Turks, sold himself to them, and did his best to 
mislead their antagonist, while the Hospodar of Moldavia, 
who was equally in the confidence of both, though lean- 
ing decidedly to Peter's side, was unable or afraid to 
do anything upon his behalf. At Jassy, the Moldavian 
capital, where he expected to find store of provisions, he 
was met by an apology for their absence, and thus his 
army was reduced to severe straits. Learning that the 
Turks had formed great magazines near Galatz, he sent 
two divisions of his force along the western bank of the 
Pruth in order to seize them; but they had not proceeded 
far ere they were arrested by the alarming intelligence 
that the Turks were advancing up the other side. Before 
it could be determined what ought to be done the advance- 
guard ot the two armies contronted each other, with the 
stream between. Scherematoff, who was one of Peter's 
most trusted generals, held the command, and he imme- 
diately made the best dispositions possible in order to 
prevent the Turks from crossing. His efforts were wholly 
vain, for thousands of Crimean horsemen forded the river 
at divers places, and four bridges were speedily thrown 
across it. T 1 > best he could do was to draw off his 
troops, fallii; .ick upon the main army. Peter could 
not blame, for he had no choice save to fall back himself 
in quest of the most defensible position he could find. 
His selection was made with the clear and sagacious 
sense which seldom deserted him, even in his most 
vehement paroxysms of passion. The ground he fixed 
upon for making a final stand was guarded by the river 
on his left, and by an extensive marsh on his right, so 
&ha,t he calculated on the enemy being compelled to 

i 



130 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP* VI, 

deliver his attack right in front. It was a reasonable 

conjecture, yet it proved wholly erroneous. 

The Battle of the Pruth. — The Turkish army was 
three or four times larger than what the Russian force 
had now become. The Turkish leaders had learned 
much of the disappointments the Tsar had met with, and 
the straits to which his men were reduced It was 
resolved to turn this knowledge to account by starving 
them into a surrender. For days on end the Tsar waH 
left to use pick and spade in laboriously throwing up 
earthworks to guard his front, while all the time he was 
being subjected to effectual environment. The eastern 
side of the river, which protected his left flank, was 
planted with batteries of artillery, and watched by 
numerous patrols. The heights to the west of the marsh, 
which protected his right, were occupied in force. Round 
to his rear there was a stilt larger detachment sent — one 
that outnumbered his whole army. Thus cooped up. it 
soon began to sutler dire distress. The pangs of thirst 
were more severe than those of hunger, for rations of 
food were dealt out in small quantity, but water was unob- 
tainable. What was drawn from the marsh could not 
be drank, while to approach the river was almost certain 
death. In these circumstances, Peter had no option but 
to try whether he could not break through the circle 
which girdled him. On two successive days he made 
the attempt It was made with a strength that had all 
the fury of despair. Nevertheless, it failed; and on the 
evening of the second day he gave orders that the camp 
baggage should be destroyed, preparatory to a final effort 
at getting away. He then retired to his tent, and wrote 
this letter to the Russian senate, entrusting it to a 
messenger who, in the confusion that ensued, got through 
the Turkish lines: — "I announce to you that, deceived 
by false intelligence, and without blame on my part, I 
find myself here shut up in my camp by an army four 
times larger than mine. Our supplies are cut off, and 
we momentarily expect to be taken prisoners, unless 
Heaven comb to our relief in some unexpected manner. 



A.D. 1721.] THE BATTLE OP THE PRUTH. 131 

Should it happen to me to be taken captive by the 
Turks you will no more consider me as your Tsar and 
Sovereign, nor will you pay any attention to any ordei 
that may be brought you as from me, even should you 
recognise my handwriting, but you will wait for my 
coming in person. If I am to perish here, and you 
receive well-authenticated intelligence of my death, you 
will then proceed to choose as my successor him who is 
most worthy among you." 

Nothing could more strikingly illustrate either the 
magnanimity and patriotic feeling of the man or the 
gloomy forebodings by which he was oppressed. The 
alternative which stared him in the face was that of 
annihilation or surrender. The conception that his 
antagonist would be such a fool as to accept any compro- 
mise never entered his clear and decided mind. Most 
fortunately for him his peremptory sense was reinforced, 
or rather was superseded, by a wisdom which he must 
have deemed irrational. Catherine wrun^ from him a 
reluctant consent to try an expedient which had occurred 
to her. Having obtained permission, she dictated to the 
chancellor a letter suing for terms of peace, and entrusted 
it to General Scherematoff for delivery. At the same 
time, she gave him all the jewels and money she could 
gather, to be distributed as he chose, in order to further 
an accommodation. Scherematoff fulfilled his mission 
with great tact. He was lucky in the persons with 
whom he had to deal. The steward of the Grand Vizier 
was greedy and influential. The Grand Vizier himself 
Was greedy and timid. Applying first to the steward, 
Scherematoff got him to smooth a way to his master, 
who was induced to grant an interview. A favourable 
reception being obtained, Baltadji allowed himself to be 
persuaded that he could win without bloodshed all that 
the most complete victory would secure. The conditions 
imposed w r ere very hard, and the language used to 
express them was galling from its haughtiness; but 
anything was preferable to the destruction that must 
otherwise have befallen. Accepting " the royal and infinite 



132 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI* 

goodness of the thrice powerful and gracious Padishah," 
Peter gladly agreed, provided he was allowed to with- 
draw with his army, arms, colours, and baggage, tc 
surrender Azoff with its artillery and stores, to give 
up interference in Poland and the Crimea, paying the 
Tartars an indemnity for what they had endured, to 
allow Turkish goods free entrance into Russia, to liberate 
all Turkish prisoners, and to provide King Charles with 
a safe-conduct. That night the Russians got supplies of 
food. Next day they were on the road home, starting six- 
teen thousand men fewer than when they came to J assy. 
Thankful as he was for his escape, reflection did not tend 
to reconcile Peter to the terms on which it was bought. 
He circulated a garbled version of them throughout 
Europe. He strove t„ evade their fulfilment. More 
than once his excuses and delays made a fresh rupture 
imminent. Mainly through the mediation of Sir Robert 
Sutton, the British ambassador, this was obviated, and 
a settlement was drawn which subsisted for a quarter of 
a century. 

This was the last of Peter's great European wars, 
though for years on end he maintained with growing 
success his steady pressure on Sweden and Poland. 
That employment, however, was not enough to engross 
his energetic nature. He gave heed as well to the 
eastern side of his dominions. His anxiety for commerce 
made him look back with envy to the old days when the 
trade of India and the farthest East made its way 
through Central Asia, and when that of Central Asia 
itself was better worth having. To restore that trade to 
its ancient channels became one of his great objects. 
Security he knew was indispensable to restoration, and 
for the enforcement of security he knew but one method. 
It was his idea that every state and realm, from the 
Dardanelles to the Indus, from the Volga to the wall of 
China, from the Euphrates to the North Sea, should pass 
under his paternal and ameliorative sway. 

Movements in Asia. — In 1717 he despatched an expe- 
dition against Khiva — a hundred years before diplomatic 



A.D. 1721.] MOVEMENTS IN ASIA. 133 

communications had been opened with that distant 
khanate. More than once bands of marauding Cossacks 
had penetrated to it in quest of plunder. These incur- 
sions all ended disastrously. Either the invaders were 
cut off on their encumbered retreat by the Khivese, or 
the rigours of winter fell upon them with a severity 
more fatal than the arms of the inhabitants. Peter mad<? 
vast preparations for avoiding a recurrence of failure. 
Detachments were posted at all suitable places between 
Astracan and the operating army. It consisted of 3500 
men, with six guns, and a train which comprised 200 
camels and 300 horses, under the command of Prince 
Bekovitch - Cherkasky. He was still a hundred miles 
from the Khivan capital when he had to give battle to 
the army of defence. The fight lasted three days, and 
ended in a Bussian triumph. The Khan, owning him- 
self beaten, entered into negotiations and readily assented 
to the terms the victor dictated. He was invited to the 
capital, though with the suggestion that he should bring 
on his army by detachments. The proposal was accepted 
without any suspicion of ulterior designs. But no sooner 
was the force split up into fractions than the Khivese, in 
reinforced numbers, fell upon them separately, and put 
every man to the sword. The corpse of Prince Bekovitch 
they flayed, stuffing the skin with hay, and then sending 
it as a present to the Emir of Bokhara. 

Strangely enough, however deeply Peter resented this 
treacherous check, he took no immediate steps for punish- 
ing it. Instead, he contented himself with setting to 
work nearer home on behalf of the project he had in 
view. He had formerly made acquaintance with the 
Caspian Sea, and entertained the notion of linking it 
with the Euxine by running a canal betwixt the Volga 
and the Don. He now resumed this idea on a more 
extended scale, labouring at it for several years. In 
1720 he became aware of a design promoted by Austria 
for disturbing his friendly relations with the Porte. It 
happened at the same time that Persia had been pitifully 
misgoverned for years, the Shah being a weak man, at 



134 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [cHA*. VI. 

variance with a powerful rebel named Mahmoud, who 
was sustained by Affghan support. Peter circumvented 
Austria by calling Turkish attention to these circum- 
stances, and proposing an alliance for composing the 
distractions of Persia in a manner advantageous to the 
allies. The league was formed in 1720, and eighteen 
months later Peter, accompanied by bis wife, led an 
expedition into Persian territory. A force of 45,000 
men, of whom 9000 were cavalry and 3000 sailors, were 
conducted through the defiles of the Caucasus, suffering 
great hardships on the march. They came out at Der- 
bent, which the governor was keeping against Mahmoud. 
It was immediately surrendered to Peter, tie terror of 
whose name had spread far in advance. He abstained, 
however, from following up his victory with his accus- 
tomed resolution. He saw that the country would yield 
little, and would be difficult to keep, unless it should be 
found accessible by some other route. He was satisfied, 
therefore, in the meantime to annex the Persian pro- 
vinces bordering on the Caspian, stipulating also that the 
Porte should receive a large accession of territory — a gift 
which soon drew upon Turkey the vengeance of the 
famous Nadir Shah. 

Second Visit to the West. — Some years before this 
Peter revisited several western countries. He went first 
to Denmark, then to Holland, and next to France, 
returning from Paris to Amsterdam and Copenhagen. 
His object now was mainly to study political systems 
rather than useful arts. In the French capital, though 
he more than once gave way to outbursts of passion, he 
displayed a politeness which astonished those who came 
in contact with him. At the tomb of Richelieu he 
uttered (or is said to have uttered) the exclamation — 
" Great man ! I would have given half my empire to 
learn of thee how to govern the remainder." He charmed 
Madame de Maintenon, the widow of Scarron, the farce- 
writer, and of Louis XIV.; though it may be doubted 
whether he thought her a woman to vie with his own 
Catherine. She joined him at Amsterdam, whither she 



A.D. 1721.] SAD PATE OP ALEXIS. 135 

came after having given birth to a son, who only lived a 
few hours. There he was hugely delighted to find that 
his former visit was well remembered, and that the cot- 
tage where he had lived was preserved under the name 
of '" The Prince's House." All through his journey he 
was in high spirits. At Nymogen he arrived one night 
with only one attendant. He made his supper upon a 
poached egg, with some bread and cheese added. In the 
morning he was presented with a bill for a hundred 
ducats. " Eggs must be scarce hereabouts," remarked 
he. " No, sire," quoth the landlord, with a ready wit 
which mollified the man he was thus cheating, "but 
emperors are." Nothing could mollify him, however, in 
respect of a grievous trouble that came to him at Copen- 
hagen, giving rise to one of the most obscure and repul- 
sive incidents of his life. 

Sad Fate of his Eldest Son. — He had a son by his 
first wife, Eudoxia Lapuchin. This lad of course was 
his beir. The education of the boy had been conducted 
in a singularly irregular fashion. He bad been indulged, 
at times, to an extent that really became an education in 
vice. At other times he had been restrained with a 
severity that provoked a rebellion against what would 
have been for his good. He grew up a callous, selfish, 
brutal being. It is the curse of most monarchs that the 
heir-apparent is drawn to the headship of an opposite 
party from that which is in favour at the court. At St. 
Petersburg there was little room for such opposition, 
but Prince Alexis openly did his best to provide 
standing-ground and incitement for such a party. He 
had been married to an amiable young woman, who died 
of heart-break from his cruelty. He had been threatened 
with deprivation of rank and prospect, but was forgiven 
on the promise of better behaviour. The report now 
came that in his father's absence he was vapouring about 
what he would do in the event of his father's death. The 
system Peter had established was to be overthrown. The 
favourites he had honoured were to be dismissed. The 
new-fangled practices he had instituted were to be done 



136 HISTOKT OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VI. 

away, and the ancient habits of Muscovy were to be 
re-introduced. When Peter heard this he summoned 
the youth to attend him at Copenhagen. Instead of 
obeying, Alexis went off on a continental tour. He 
visited Austria, the Tyrol, and Italy, waiting till the 
storm should blow over. When he came back, it was 
much too soon, for he had to encounter no mere gust of 
passing wrath, but a white heat of indignation. He was 
arrested. He was made to sign a paper declaring that 
his scandalous conduct rendered him unfit for the succes- 
sion to the throne. A confession of conspiracy was 
extorted from him. Even after this he was impeached 
before the senate of high treason, when his father 
appeared as the chief witness against him. Of course he 
was condemned, and was adjudged worthy of death, 
though a recommendation to mercy was added. He died 
in prison next day after an interview with his father. 
Russian historians say the death was caused by weakness, 
fatigue, and remorse ; other chroniclers hint at poison 
having been administered. 

Character of Peter. — Seven years later, soon after hia 
return from his Persian campaign, the Tsar himself died 
in the great capital he had reared. He was then only 
fifty-three; but into the years of his active life th°r^ had 
bee a :~owded ten times the amount of work an<? f dissi- 
pation *fiat would have killed any ordinary person. He 
stands out one of the most prominent yet nondescript 
figures in all history, whether taken as man or as ruler. 
As a man his bad qualities were numerous and strong. 
He was sensual, fierce, untruthful, even to his innermost 
naturo. Yet he was capable of what seemed pure affec- 
tion, of fast friendship, of downright candour, of th? most 
magnanimous generosity. He was always stubbornly 
self-willed ; but it was often an even chance which way 
his inclinations would fall. He was sometimes cruel 
with the insensibility to suffering of one who is strong 
for endurance ; but at many great crises in his career ho 
showed himself placable and easy to be entreated, chiefly 
because he was so self-reliant as to scorn the feebleness 



A. T>, 1721-1797.] CHARACTER OP PETER. 137 

of revenge upon those who were powerless. A habitual 
drunkard, be was capable of abstemiousness for long 
periods ; yet, while his intoxication often served to give 
a new force and cunning to his moral obliquities, his 
friends were most afraid of him when he was most him- 
self. As a rular lew men have exerted an influence so 
wide, so varied, so thorough, or so enduring. He created 
a new Russia. In domestic affairs the change effected 
was peremptory, radical, and extended. It swept away 
the constitutional guarantees to which the Romanoiis 
were pledged, in order to set up an absolutism of the most 
imperious cast. It touched not only the framework of 
administration, but penetrated to the inner spirit of 
society, elevating its character in many respects, yet pro- 
ducing a strange compound between the fantastic splen- 
dours of Tartar domination and the modes of western 
life. In foreign affairs the change was even more notable; 
for to Peter there may be traced the groundwork of that 
policy of intrigue, encroachment, and incorporation, which 
has been pursued with such an unswerving steadiness of 
decision, and such an astonishing continuity of success, 
as to have trebled since his time the extent of Russian 
territory, and enabled Russia to profit by every cozs? 
siderable eveafc, either in Europe or i» Asi&* 



CHAPTER VII. 

*2HE PERIOD OF FEMALE SOVEREIGNTY. 

From the death of Peter till the accession of Paul I.., 
a period of seventy years, the sovereignty of Russia was 
in the hands of women. Ic is true that this course of 
female sway was thrice broken, but the interruptions 
were brief, lasting only a few months at the longest, and 
were little more than nominal, for two of the interven- 
ing monarchs were children, and the other was an 
imbecile. 

Catherine I. — Peter's heir was his grandson, the child 
of the unfortunate Alexis. The lad's lights were super- 
seded in favour of Catherine, his grandfather's widow. 
A strong body of partisans, headed by Menschikoff, took 
prompt action on her behalf. Despite considerable oppo- 
sition, she was proclaimed on the day that Peter died. 
Her title was vindicated on the score that she had been 
crowned thirteen years previously, when the late* Tsar 
himself set the diadem upon her brow ; and that though 
he had left no specific will directing that she should suc- 
ceed him, he had often expressed a desire that such an 
arrangement should take place. Catherine, while firmly 
asserting her claim, judiciously propitiated her opponents 
by declaring that she would hold the crown as a sacred 
deposit for the young Grand Duke. Her elevation was 
popular, for it was well known with what heroism she 
had sustained her husband in many of his most arduous 
enterprises, and with what perseverance and effect she 
had tempered to clemency his savage disposition. Never- 
theless there were murmurs of discontent among the old 
nobility, who were scandalised that, as they p*hrased it, 



A.D. 1781-1797.] CATHERINE I. 139 

" a pastry-cook should make a waiting-maid Empress of 
all the Russias;" and, unfortunately, her conduct gave 
some justification to their dislike. 

She began well. The capitation tax was reduced. 
Many exiles were recalled from Siberia. The brave 
Cossacks, who thought it shame to serve a woman, had 
their loyalty ensured by a restoration of privileges which 
Lad been harshly withdrawn, in fulfilment of a design 
Peter had long entertained, she established the Academy 
of Sciences at St. Petersburg, on the plan of Leibnitz. 
A wise discretion governed all her early activity at home. 
At the same time the bounds of the empire were extended 
eastward by the voluntary submission of a Georgian 
prince, who brought with him a province of that fertile 
land. A commercial treaty was concluded with China, 
which contained a stipulation that a Russian hotel, two 
churches, to be served by an archimandrite and four 
ecclesiastics, and a seminary for the education of Russian 
young men, who might afterwards act as interpreters on 
the frontier, should be established at Pekin. In Europe 
she entered into an alliance with Charles VI. of Ger- 
many, by which it was mutually agreed that, in case of 
necessity, each should assist the other with a force of 
30,000 men. Her only failure was in the case of Den- 
mark, whom she was anxious to dispossess of the duchy 
of Holstein. The Duke was married shortly after Peter's 
death to her daughter, the Princess Anne, and about 
the same time Denmark appropriated his dominion. 
Catherine was eager to avenge this insult and wrong, 
but her senate, looking on it as a personal affair, con- 
trived to thwart her, and refused to fire a shot. 

Her great mistake was the unlimited confidence she 
reposed in MenschikofF. She trusted him in everything. 
She loaded him with honours. His arrogance, no longer 
held in check either by the kindly satire or the stern 
reproofs of Peter, became intolerable. He domineered 
over everybody in a style that excited the keenest repug- 
nance, while the pomps and splendours in which he 
delighted were provocative of envy in some minds, and of 



140 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [cHAP. VII. 

contempt in others. The hatred of which he was the 
object soon bore fruit. It began to be whispered that he 
was as absolute with the Empress as with others. The 
tale of their early connection was raked up. and hints of 
its renewal were circulated. These calumnies seem to 
have shaken the mind of Catherine. She was suffering 
from cancer and dropsy. She gave way to the habit of 
intemperance she had learned from her husband, affecting 
particularly the wine of Tokay. That her irregularities 
hastened her end is certain. She expired in May, 1727, 
having reigned little more than two years. 

Peter II. — From the time cf his father's trial and death 
she had shown herself very fond of the young Grand 
Duke. She had placed him under the care of a Lutheran 
pastor's son, Count Ostermann, who rose to be chancellor 
of the empire. The scheme of education Ostermann 
drafted was singularly enlightened and complete. By 
her last testament Catherine directed that the boy, who 
was then twelve years of age, should continue to be 
instructed according to it till he was sixteen. Her two 
daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, with the Duke of Hol- 
stein, Anne's husband, were appointed his domestic 
guardians. Meuschikoff was named as Regent. In that 
capacity he soon showed himself more insolently over- 
bearing than ever. He so flouted the Holsteins that they 
were glad to leave the kingdom. He then took the 
young Tsar home to his own palace. Soon after be had 
him affianced to his daughter, while for his son he 
planned a marriage with another member of the imperial 
family. During a few brief months his haughty career 
was one of unchecked prosperity ; but the opposition he 
had raised during the late reign soon grew more intense 
and vindictive. The powerful family of the Dolgoroukis 
took the lead in the cabal formed against him. A scion 
of that house was foisted upon the Tsar as a companion. 
In a short time the mind of the royal pupil was alienated 
from his imperious master. The lad learned to chafe at the 
degrading restrictions imposed upon him. He resiled 
from the marriage into the promise of which he now 



A.D. 1730.] SUCCESSION OF ANNE. 141 

conceived himself to have been trepanned; and having 
gone out to hunt one day, he not only refused to return, 
but signed an order for the Regent's banishment. It was 
executed forthwith. Menschikoff had no idea of the peril 
by which he was menaced. He had for some time busied 
himself with plans for becoming Duke of Courland. From 
this prospective elevation, which overtopped the marvel- 
lous height at which he had long stood, he was in a 
moment hurled to a depth of misery more abject than 
that from which he sprung. He was stripped of his 
honours and of his wealth, which is said to have amounted 
to well-nigh three millions of roubles, or a million ster- 
ling; he was exiled to the frontiers of Siberia, where he 
and his children had to toil hard to keep body and soul 
together; and he died wretchedly in 1729. 

After his departure the Dolgoroukis had things their 
own way. They grievously abused their trust. The boy 
Tsar was encouraged in a course of conduct which disin- 
clined and unfitted him for any care about public business. 
His tutors took that into their own hands, managing it 
in a fashion as despotic and offensive as Menschikoff had 
done. Hating St. Petersburg, they shifted the capital 
back to Moscow. The monarch was never seen there. 
His absorbing passion was the chase, which he pursued 
with an avidity injurious to his health, for he was a 
weakly lad. In the winter of 1729 he was attacked by 
small-pox, and in January, 1730, he died. With him 
the direct male line of the Romanoffs became extinct. 

The Succession of Anne. — The will of Catherine was at 
first appealed to as a guide in regard to the succession. 
By it her daughters were nominated as next in order to 
Peter II. The eldest, Anne of Holstein, was now dead, 
and though she had left a son, the senate objected to him 
both as a foreigner and as a minor. The second, Eliza- 
beth, was offered the crown, but she was then greatly 
dejected by the recent death of her intended husband, 
and she resolutely refused it. In the end the honour fell 
to Anne, Duchess of Courland, the daughter of Ivan, the 
imbecile half-brother of Peter the Great. Though young, 



H2 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII 

she had been long a widow. Her chances of the throne 
were so slender that, in making a proffer of it, the senate 
deemed it a favourable opportunity for enforcing condi- 
tions. The proposals submitted were: that she should 
renounce the right to make peace or war, to impose new 
taxes, to alienate crown lands, to marry or nominate an 
heir, without the consent of the senate and council. An 
additional stipulation was, that a low-born favourite, one 
Biren, should not accompany her to Russia. When the 
senate's deputation, headed by Prince Dolgorouki, waited 
upon her at Mifctau, they were astonished to hnd a mean- 
looking and shabbily-dressed fellow waiting with her to 
receive them. The Prince signed to him to leave, and 
when he refused to stir, forced him out. The man was 
Biren. The insult he had received rankled in his mind, 
and bitterly did he avenge it. 

Anne demurred to the terms suggested, but finding 
the deputation inflexible, she subscribed the pledge they 
sought, cherishing, there can be no doubt, the purpose of 
throwing it off as soon as she dared. The time came 
speedily. She was crowned in the spring of 1730. Ere 
summer was half through Biren was installed in the 
palace Menschikoff had occupied. He soon collected a 
party who complained of the favouritism exerted by the 
Dolgoroukis, and Anne was approached with a represen- 
tation that her people would rather obey one than eight 
masters. "What!" she exclaimed, " is not the deed I 
signed at Mittau in accordance with the desires of the 
nation?" Producing her copy, she read the articles one 
by one. At each there cam^. from the throng a shout 
that it was contrary to their wishes. Thereupon she tore 
the document in shreds, declaring that she would reign 
with the same power as her predecessors. The applause 
evoked by this well acted scene was re-echoed outside, 
and an oath of fealty to her as an unlimited sovereign 
was obtained before the gathering dispersed. Swiftly 
thereafter befell the fate of those who were obnoxious to 
her and to her minion. Four of the family who had been 
for some time all-nowerful in the State were hurried off 



A.D. l730.] THE NEW REIGN, 143 

to Siberia, while other four — father aL.d uncle, son and 
nephew — were cast into prison, where they languished 
for years, ignorant of each other's doom or existence, till 
they were brought forth to meet at the rack and the 
scaffold. 

The New Reign. — Anne reigned for ten years. Apart 
from her infatuation for Biren (as he called himself 
— originally a groom, he took a French title of nobi- 
lity), she was a person of superior capacity. She had 
just instincts; she had a clear discernment; she had 
a firm mind. Wherever her evil genius did not inter- 
fere, she did most things well. During her residence in 
Courland she had acquired tastes and accomplishments 
which were strange at St. Petersburg. The alteration 
in the manners of society carried through at the instance 
of Peter the Great fell far short of what she desired. 
An imperial ukase, published soon after she came to the 
throne, ordered that all young gentlemen should learn to 
read, to write, and to dance. She encouraged a ruinous 
degree of extravagance A courtier who did not spend 
two or three thousand roubles a year upon dress made no 
figure. Sometimes there arose the most odd and offen- 
sive blending of pomp and refinement with barbarism 
and nastiness. The style of life might be gorgeous, but 
it was incredibly foul. A typical instance is given by 
Macaulay. In describing the appearance of the Russian 
ambassador to Britain and his suite at a State ball, he 
tells that they came dropping pearls and — vermin ! 

In various respects, however, substantial improvements 
were made. The new capital was greatly embellished. 
The canal from Lake Ladoga was completed. Silk and 
woollen manufactures were instituted and brought to 
considerable perfection. The mines of the Ural moun- 
tains were explored. A voyage of discovery was made to 
Kamschatka, in order to determine whether Siberia was 
connected with North America. The territory upon 
the frontiers of China inhabited by the Kirghises was 
annexed. With China on the one hand, and with 
Britain on the other, fresh commercial treaties were con« 



144 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

eluded, both being very advantageous to Russia. The 
merit of these things mainly belongs to Count Ostermann, 
who had now become prime minister. 

Marshal Munich, a German, who made his first appear- 
ance in the held under the renowned Marlborough, and 
who had greatly distinguished himself at Malplaquet, 
was at the head of the army. Through his intervention 
Augustus III. was established upon the throne of Poland, 
and the dependence of that country upon Russia was 
greatly enhanced. Attention was then turned to the 
affairs of Turkey For years a desire to wipe away the 
humiliation endured at the Pruth. and to recover what 
was then lost, had occupied the national mind. From the 
memoirs of General Manstein it appears that in 1725 a 
descent upon the coasts of the Black Sea was planned, 
though the death of Peter caused a postponement of the 
enterprise. In 1730 General Keith was sent to inspect 
the stores that had been collected, and conduct such reor- 
ganization as was requisite, when the Polish troubles 
again caused delay. In 1735 the resolution was defi- 
nitely taken that Turkey should be attacked, the aim 
being to reconquer AzofF, annex the Crimea, and make 
Russia mistress of the Black Sea. 

Invasion of the Crimea. — The predatory habits of the 
Crimean Tartars afforded a pretext for interference, and 
in 1736 the Crimea was invaded. The Tartars withdrew, 
drawing on their antagonists, but clearing the country in 
advance. Terrible sufferings ensued. The invaders lost 
ten thousand men and gained nothing. Next year, 
however, the enterprise was renewed, and the war was 
•widened. Munich revisited the Crimea, marching through 
it in its length and breadth, devastating and pillaging 
wherever he went, though its occupation he found an 
impossible achievement. At the same time Lascy, an 
Irishman in the Russian service, captured' Azoff ; Leon- 
tieff, another foreigner, took Kilburn; and eastward of 
Yenikale the Kuban Tartars were induced to throw ofi* 
their allegiance to the Turk. It was not till Azoff had 
been assailed that the Turkish Divan were roused to 



A.D. 1736.] INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 145 

consider the war as serious. Their preparations for resist- 
ance were very formidable. At the outset, however, 
thev made an effort to avert hostilities by soliciting the 
mediation in turn of France, Sweden, and Austria. 
Russia rejected the intervention of the two first-named 
powers ; and while she pretended to accept that of 
Austria, it was with the secret understanding, which it 
was sought to justify under the treaty made with 
Catherine, that Turkey was merely to be amused till it 
should suit the sham mediator to strike in as an active 
belligerent. The Austrian motive for this scandalous 
treachery was a desire to obtain, at the expense of 
Turkey, some equivalent for the losses Charles had sus- 
tained in his last Bourbon war. The unprincipled greed 
thus shown was signally disappointed. In two successive 
campaigns the Austrian troops were beaten far back upon 
their own territory ; and in the autumn of 1739 their 
main army capitulated in a fashion more humiliating 
than anything known at that time in the history of 
modern Europe. In the peace that followed, the con- 
dition of things established in the last Austro-Turkish 
war was reversed. All that Prince- Eugene gained in 
1716-17 was "given back; Belgrade became a Turkish 
town ; and the Danube, the Saar, and the Unna were 
made the boundary of the two empires. 

Russia was not much more fortunate. In the campaign 
of 1738 Munich had sulked and done little, being unable 
to agree with his Austrian allies. Nevertheless a pro- 
posal to make peace then he vehemently opposed. He 
went to St. Petersburg, where he busied himself as an 
apostle of what has become the traditional creed of Russia. 
He counselled the seizure of Constantinople. He pointed 
out the weakness of Turkey consequent upon the predo- 
minance of a ruling caste over outnumbering millions of 
a different faith. He showed how easy it would be to 
stimulate the discontent of the rayahs. In short, he 
inculcated doctrines which have been steadily kept in 
view for a century and a half after his time. His energy 
was conspicuous in the campaign ol* 1 739. At Stavatchav 

K 



146 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

and at Khoorim he gained brilliant victories. He then 
crossed the Pruth, took possession of Jassy, proclaimed 
Prince Cantemir the Hospodar of Moldavia, and, wheel- 
ing round into Bessarabia, was about to strike at Bender, 
when news of the Austrian pacification arrested him, and 
he was himself recalled. Much to his chagrin a Russian 
peace was soon afterwards concluded. It stipulated that 
Azoff should not be occupied by either of the belligerents, 
that the conquests made by Munich should be restored, 
and that no Russian fleet should enter the Euxine, Rus- 
sian commerce finding transport in Turkish ships. Thus 
all that Russia had gained by a war which cost her 
100,000 men and an enormous sum of money, was the 
devastation of the Crimea. Even that devastation, ruth- 
less as it had been, did not repress the Tartars, nor keep 
them from harassing the Russian frontier and insulting 
the Russian power. 

The Biren Regency. — A chief reason for the recall 
of Munich was the illness of Anne. There was a pro- 
spect of quarrels over the succession, and it was deemed 
desirable to have on the spot the general who had 
most influence with the troops. In the latter days 
of the Empress the supremacy of Biren became more 
assured than ever. His cruelties and excesses were 
so appalling that even his royal mistress went on 
her knees entreating him to forbear, and supplicated in 
vain. In 1737 he was elected, through Russian dicta- 
tion, Duke of Courland. About the same time he made 
love to the Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter by 
Catherine, with the intention of asserting her claim to 
the throne when it became vacant, and so of obtaining it 
for himself. His suit was disagreeable to the lady, and 
the course of events altered his plans. In 1739 a niece 
of the Tsarina was married to Ulric, Duke of Brunswick. 
Next year a son was born of the marriage. Anne at 
once adopted the infant, and named him her h-eir, choosing 
Biren at the same time as administrator of the govern- 
ment till the boy should attain his seventeenth year. 
Two months later she died. The Regent had thus before 



A.D. 1737-1738. THE BRUNSWICK REGENCY. 147 

him a long stretch of uncontrolled authority. The arro- 
gance of his nature rose to a greater pitch than ever. 
The grinding character of the domination he exerted had 
never been exceeded even in Russia. No rank nor 
station afforded any security against his imperious man- 
dates. The parents of the young Prince were threatened 
with expulsion to Germany, should they interfere with 
him in any way, and were put under virtual arrest in the 
winter palace. He had t'he temerity to insult Marshal 
Munich, when he thought he could dispense with his 
services. The marshal thereupon turned against him, 
forced a way to the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick, 
induced them to sign an order for his arrest, and had him 
seized in his bed at two o'clock next morning. The same 
day he was arraigned before a commission of senators 
and military men, who had no difficulty in determining 
that he was guilty of crimes which, " by the laws of God, 
of nature, and of the empire, merited death." The sen- 
tence was commuted, however, into exile to Siberia, 
whither he was at once despatched, his regency having 
lasted only twenty-two days. 

The Brunswick Regency. — The Princess of Brunswick 
was now proclaimed as Regent, and guardian of her son. 
Her rule was at once accepted. It did not last fourteen 
months. Of a mild disposition, and incorrigibly indolent, 
there was the utmost difficulty in getting her to pay any 
heed to state affairs. With a maid of honour, whom she 
made a confidant, and other female friends, she would 
seclude herself for weeks together. Thus she became 
estranged from her husband, and from her ministers — 
Munich taking part with the Duke, though Ostermann 
rather sided with her. In this manner the way was 
prepared for another palace revolution. The Princess 
Elizabeth had overcome her repugnance to the crown; 
ambition stirred within her; she shared the aversion 
entertained by the old nobility to having foreigners at 
the head of affairs; and her physician, Lestocq, a born 
intriguer, got up a conspiracy in her favour, which was 
easily successful. Lestocq was a native of Hanover. He 



148 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VH 

had learnt surgery in Paris, where he so interfered in 
politics that he became for a time an inmate of the 
Bastile. On his release he made his way to St. Peters- 
burg. He had not been long there ere he was deported 
to Siberia. He was speedily recalled, however, was 
attached to the household of the Princess, and at once 
became the centre of a camarilla by whom she was sur- 
rounded. It was with difficulty he could get her to 
move, even after he had bribed many of the guards to 
espouse her cause, and the whole scheme was divulged 
before it could be put in operation. The Princess Anne 
sent for her, upbraided her with ingratitude, and accused 
her directly of having conspired against the young 
Emperor. With much seeming ingenuousness and many 
tears she denied the charge, was believed, embraced, and 
sent home. She was now resolved to abandon the under- 
taking ; but Lestocq felt that he was compromised, and 
induced her to change her mind by the exhibition of a 
card showing her on one side with crown and sceptre, on 
the other as a nun in a convent cell. On the night of 
her interview with the Eegent, that lady, her son, and 
her husband were seized as Biren had been, and the 
revolution was accomplished without a drop of blood 
being shed. 

The Reign of Elizabeth. — Elizabeth reigned without 
molestation for twenty years. She was a strong-minded 
woman, with much of her father's temper. She was pro- 
fligate — for she kept a succession of favourites; she was 
cruel and whimsical — the combination sometimes giving 
to her conduct a horrible grotesqueness ; she was grossly 
untruthful — never hesitating over a lie where it would 
serve her purpose; yet she was far-sighted, prudent, 
prompt, and firm. Till the day she was brought before 
the public to be proclaimed as Empress, she had lived in 
seclusion; but at once she displayed a masculine vigour, 
haranguing the troops, issuing eloquent manifestoes, exhi- 
biting a sleepless vigilance, an amazing courage, and a 
high degree of political sense. She told her people that 
the late Regent, her son,, and her husband had been sent 



a.d. 1781-1797.] Elizabeth's cruelties. 149 

back to their own country, with the honours that befitted 
their rank. The facts are that they were kept in con- 
finement as long as they lived, the Princess Anne dying 
in 1746; the poor little Tsar two years later, when he 
was aged eight, being moved to Schlusselburgh, where 
he was murdered in 1764; while his father lived on till 
1780, long after Elizabeth herself. 

Her Cruelties. — All the men who had held power 
before her accession were seized, thrown into prison, 
and condemned to die — the eminent colleagues and 
rivals, Munich and Ostermann among them. Thev were 
brought out to the scaffold together, where a list of 
their crimes was read over to them, followed by an inti- 
mation of their sentences. Munich was to be quartered; 
Ostermann was to be broken on the wheel. Proceedings 
commenced with Ostermann. He was undressed and led 
forward, when at the last moment, intimation was made 
that his doom had been commuted into one of perpetual 
banishment. " Pray/' quoth he, unconcernedly," " give 
me back my wig and cap." So saying he buttoned up, 
smoothed his beard, and resigned himself to life. Munich, 
neatly shaved, and trimly dressed, as if for a review, heard 
of his reprieve without deigning to utter a syllable. He 
was trudged off to Siberia, where he was allowed twelve 
copecks a day for his maintenance. This sum he eked 
out by selling milk and opening a school, whence he sent 
up many expert mathematicians. Six years later he 
found a companion in Lestocq, who had set the crown 
u.oon Elizabeth's head. He had an overweening sense of 

J. o 

the value that belonged to his services; he waxed arro- 
gant and dictatorial ; and he quarrelled desperately with 
the chancellor, Bestuchoff, who had ingratiated himself 
most thoroughly in the good graces of his royal mistress. 
She gave her old friend up to the resentment of her new 
minion, by whom he and his wife were exiled — much to 
the satisfaction of the latter, who, when she found things 
going against her, fervently entreated the judges to 
" spare her skin," that is, to absolve her from the tor- 
ture of the knout. In this she was more fortunate than 



150 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. Vlt 

others. Elizabeth conceived herself the handsomest 
woman in her dominions, and regarded with a vixenish 
jealousy all who had any pretensions to vie with her. 
Among them was one of the Lapuchin family. She waa 
accused of a treasonable correspondence with the Prus- 
sian ambassador, and was knouted, before being exiled. 
From behind a curtain the Empress witnessed unmoved 
the horrible flagellation, by which the flesh on the back 
of her fair rival was cut into strips, and parted from her 
bones. Besides the knout, which was plied with a tre- 
mend <>•!.- vigour, ''her forms of torture were much in 
use. Yet the Empress had a great dislike of taking life. 
In the course of her reign capital punishment was abro- 
gated . and 4>,e hnd medals struck in honour of herself, 
with the motto " Elizabeth the Clement!" Verily her 
tender mercies were cruel. She set up a species of Inqui- 
sition, cared the Secret Court of Chancery, where the 
vilest cruelties were practised on suspected delinquents 
in order to extort confessions of guilt. This tribunal 
had the lives and fortunes of every one in the land at its 
mercy. Accusations were invited by granting to the 
accuser a share in the estate of a condemned person. 
BestuchofF presided over the court for years, till at last 
he fell under the displeasure of his royal mistress, was 
transformed from judge to victim, and was deported to 
Siberia whither he had sent off many crushed and broken- 
hearted people. 

Character of Her Rule. — The despotism Elizabeth 
exerted was most minute and inexorable. No one dared 
pass her palace without taking off his hat, upon pain of 
being imprisoned. To write her name in small letters was 
an offence of a heinous kind. She insisted upon the clergy 
fasting most rigorously upon all appointed days, to eat 
flesh on such an occasion being accounted a far worse sin 
than any breach of the decalogue. Drunkenness she 
abominated and sternly repressed. Her own life waa 
exceedingly impure; but she was inflexibly severe towards 
those who erred in the like fashion. In her later days she 
was haunted by a dread of assassination, and durst never 



A.B. 1781-1797.] PETER III. 161 

sleep except in daylight, and under the protection of a 
strong guard. Yet she was in many respects a great 
ruler. Without any very costly effort, she managed to 
uphold the dignity and to advance the interests of the 
empire. The population was largely augmented in her 
reign. She patronised literature. She founded and 
endowed several scientific institutions. An excellent 
musician, she st.ove to make music a part of common 
education. The war with Sweden, which was in pro- 
gress when she ascended the throne, was brought to a 
brilliant close by Lascy in 174.3, when the peace of Abo 
was concluded, under which Russia obtained another 
large slice of territory, her boundary being advanced to 
the Kymene river, and Sweden being reduced almost to 
the condition of a Russian province. In the war of 
" the Austrian succession," impelled alike by sympathy 
with Maria Theresa, and deep dislike of Frederick, 
she took part against Prussia. Under successive com- 
manders, Apraxin, Fermer, and Soltikoff, the Russian 
troops gained divers notable successes. They were not 
followed up as they ought to have been; yet they pro- 
voked from Frederick a hearty acknowledgment of the 
bravery displayed. " These fellows," said he, of the 
Russian troops, " may be killed, but they cannot be con- 
quered." The long-drawn contest was still raging when 
Elizabeth died in 1762, and her successor at once adopted 
a complete change of policy. 

Peter III.— This successor was Charles Peter Ulric, 
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, the son of her eldest sister, 
who, by their mother's will, had a right to the crown 
before herself. She had three children by a clandestine 
marriage with a Cossack to whom she took a fancy from 
his musical performances in the chapel of the palace; but 
she would never hear of any proposal to promote them, 
instead of her nephew. He was invited to St. Peters- 
burg at the age of fourteen, was received with great dis- 
tinction, nay, persuaded to embrace the Greek religion, 
was rebaptized by the name of Peter, and was thereupon 
proclaimed as Grand Duke and heir of the empire; From 



152 history of Russia. [c&a£. vit, 

the first he was a cause of surprise and scandal to the 
people he came to govern. In personal appearance he 
was mean and ill favoured. His mental capacity was 
small, and it was oddly warped. The education he 
received was in no respect of a sort to amend either his 
intellectual or his moral defects. Though fractious and 
self-willed to an extraordinary degree, he was capable of 
generous conduct when the suggestion was spontaneous, 
but he disdained advice, and was apt to become vehe- 
mently resolute in contradiction. He cherished great 
objects, but he looked at them with childish views, and 
pursued them by ridiculous means. Even in early youth 
he showed himself ambitious without wisdom, rash with- 
out courage, obstinate without firmness, and social with- 
out sympathy, while he grew up depraved and immoral 
without shame. Uniting the blood of the great rivals 
Charles XII. and Peter I., he had to choose between the 
thrones of Russia and Sweden. He transferred the 
monarchy of Sweden to his uncle; yet he was prouder 
far of his little German duchy than of the great empire 
to which he was invited. As all his early recollections 
were Gerimm, so all his -likings continued to be. He 
made FredcJc of Prussia his idol, speaking of him as 
"the king my master," and even while his adopted 
country was at war, boasting of how differently he would 
act whea he got the power. At his palace of Oranienbaum 
he was surrounded with his Holstein guards, whom he 
drilled and dressed in Prussian fashion, appearing him- 
self in a Prussian uniform. Such perverse eccentricities 
were not his worst faults. He learned to drink hard; he 
had a decided talent for mimicry, which he cultivated by 
association with buffoons and flatterers; an indescribable 
coarseness came to characterise his amusements; and 
while yet a young man he had become as sensual, as pro- 
fligate in every mode of his profligacy, as his grandfather 
had been. His aunt was not easily scandalised, but even 
she began to see that his excesses must be checked. 

His Wife. — With the view of reforming him, she chose 
a consort on his behalf: she selected Sophia- Augusta, 



A.D. 1781-1797.] *eteb lit 153 

Princess of Anhalt-Zerbert, who was wedded to him in her 
seventeenth year, having been previously received into 
the Greek Church, and rebaptized by the names of 
Catherine Alexeyna. In the marriage contract it was 
stipulated that, should the Grand Duke die without 
children, she should succeed to the throne. It is said 
her mother had long intended her for this destiny, and 
trained her in the hope of attaining it. Certainly ambi- 
tion had more to do with the match than love, for on 
being first presented to Peter, who was then recovering 
from small-pox, his extreme ugliness so impressed her 
that she fainted. It was an ill-assorted union in every 
respect. Catherine was one of the most beautiful women 
of her time — noble in figure, graceful in deportment, 
with features which made her profile a copy of Minerva, 
fascinating hazel eyes, and a profusion of extremely fine 
chestnut-coloured hair. She was highly accomplished, 
had a keen intelligence, and soon developed a dauntless 
spirit as well as an ardent desire for power and fame. 
For a brief while she exerted a complete ascendancy over 
her husband, and it seemed as if the purpose of her advent 
was to be completely realised. Soon, however, the boor- 
ishness of his nature broke out, causing quarrels, in 
which the semblance of cordial affection was exchanged 
for resentment and fear on the one side, for contempt 
and hate on the other. Peter returned to his low 
society and his dissolute life, and Catherine, after a time, 
revenged herself for his infidelity by entering upon that 
astounding career of vice which earned for her the name 
of the modern Messalina. Her first favourite was Count 
Soltikoff, who, upon their intimacy being discovered, was 
despatched to Sweden on a special mission to announce 
the birth of an heir to the throne, Paul Petrovitch, born 
eight years after her marriage. Her next was an accom- 
plished and well-born Pole, Stanislaus Poniatowski, who 
came to St. Petersburg as an attache to the British 
embassy. When he was sent back to Warsaw she asked 
permission to go home to Germany, but the Empress 
refused it, from an apprehension that the interests of her 



154 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP, VII, 

infant Paul, of whom Elizabeth had become very fond, 
would suiter. Catherine, therefore, gave herself up to 
seclusion, and to a fresh lover — Gregory OrlofF, whose 
four brothers were soldiers in the Guards. At this time 
it was deemed not improbable that Elizabeth, who was 
slowly dying, would cancel the will by which she declared 
Peter her heir; and Catherine busied herself in prepaiing 
for such an event. It did not occur, for on her death- 
bed the Empress confirmed him in the rights that had 
been settled upon him. On the 6th of January, 1762, 
he ascended the throne without opposition, the Arch- 
bishop of Novgorod publicly thanking God that a prince 
had succeeded so likely to imitate his illustrious grand- 
father. 

His Reign. — His self-will was speedily exhibited in 
a remarkable manner. At first his action was highly 
popular, even in cases where it was questionably pru- 
dent. He immediately abolished the Secret Chancery. 
He recalled from banishment about 17,000 persons 
who had been exiled by its decrees. Lestocq, Munich, 
and even Biren, were among those brought back; and 
he amused himself greatly by having the three at the 
imperial table, their embarrassment at the unexpected 
meeting being, no doubt, ludicrous enough. He abolished 
various severe and tyrannical impositions, especially a 
tax upon salt, the pressure of which was very galling. 
He propitiated the nobles by abrogating restrictions on 
their power which Elizabeth had established. He sought 
to please the army by lessening the number of offences 
which entailed corporal punishment. He ingratiated him- 
self with the common people by openly receiving petitions 
and making personal inquiries into causes of complaint. 
His activity, however, became mere fussiness ; and if in 
some respects he consulted the interests of his people, in 
others he cut recklessly athwart their prejudices. He was 
as good as his long-promised word in regard to his rela- 
tions with the King of Prussia : no sooner did he grasp 
the power of doing as he liked than he hastened to inform 
Frederick of his wish to stop the war, and to return all 



A.D. 1781-1797.] REIGN OF PETER III. 155 

that Russia had gained ! He disgusted the army by 
insisting upon the introduction of Prussian tactics and 
discipline. He gave dire offence, and roused much sus- 
picion, by trying to disband the Guards, who, since the 
time of Catherine I., had always been engaged about the 
palace. He insisted upon the secular clergy cutting off 
their long beards, which his grandfather had not dared 
to meddle with ; he ordered the removal of what he 
called idols from every national church ; and he set up a 
Lutheran chapel at his own favoured home. While he 
thus stunned the people, irritated the army, incensed the 
clergy, and left every one in doubt what he might next 
attempt to do, he anew affronted his wife by taking the 
Countess Woronzoff as his mistress, and announcing his 
intention of having Catherine divorced and shut up. 

Her beauty, her talent, her ill-usage, had won for her 
a wide-spread admiration and pity, such as even her 
misconduct could not abate nor chill. She had been 
most attentive to the late Empress during her long ill- 
ness. She hnd charmed the populace by her affability 
and grace She assured the heads of the clergy that she 
utterly reprobated her husband's sacrilegious interference 
with their privileges, and they seemed to believe her. 
The brothers Orloff had been \ery successful by various 
means, including extensive bribery, in diffusing through 
the discontented army a sentiment favourable to her. 
Count Panin, the foreign minister, once the tutor of her 
son, was one of her fastest friends, and influenced the 
nobility in her behalf. In addition, through the Countess 
Daschkofl", the sister of Peter's mistress, she had a full 
knowledge of all that went on in the imperial court from 
which she was exiled. Thus, while the Tsar vapoured 
about what he was to do, she made ready to counteract 
him whenever the time came ; and when the people — 
ignorant of what was being contrived — began to suspect 
him of incipient madness, they grew to respect her as a 
woman deserving of confidence and esteem, who might 
have sinned, but had been grievously sinned against. 
Nevertheless the issue of this strained situation was acci- 



15$ HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Til. 

dentally precipitated. Peter, who ten weeks before had 
made an appeal to the courts of Europe^ entreating them 
to follow his example in giving up all he had gained from 
Prussia, so as to restore peace, now intimated that he 
must fight Denmark for the recovery of Schleswig, which 
he held ought to go with his duchy of Holstein. He 
further intimated that he meant to lead the expedition. 
This greatly disconcerted the conspirators, who felt it of 
paramount importance to secure his person. 

Accession of Catherine. — Catherine was at Peter- 
hoff. The Tsar was to join her next day to celebrate the 
festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, preparatory to his 
meditated expedition. He set out from Oranienbaum at 
the head of a gay party, with the Countess Woronzoff as 
a noted member of it. When they arrived at Peterhoff 
all was confusion and dismay. It turned out the Empress 
had been privately summoned by one of the OrlofFs at 
four o*clock in the morning, that she had hurried off, 
accompanied only by her waiting-maid, and that no one 
knew what had become of her. Information speedily 
came, the sender being one Bressau, a Frenchman, origi- 
nally a hair-dresser, whom Peter had taken into favour, 
and who seems to have been the only man in all the 
capital who cared what became of him. While the court 
party were traversing the gardens, haunted by a vague 
presentiment that something important was about to 
befall, a messenger handed a billet to the Tsar, who read 
— "The regiments of the Guards are under arms; the 
Empress is at their head; nine o'clock strikes; she is 
entering the church of Kazan ; all the people appear to 
follow this movement, and the faithful subjects of your 
majesty do not appear." It was even so. Catherine 
had driven straight to the barracks at St. Fetersburg, 
and called out the soldiery, saying that she had come to 
them for protection, since the Tsar had given orders to 
put her son and herself to death. She was received with 
immense enthusiasm, the men shouting that they would 
die in her defence — a pledge they readily ratified by an 
oath in presence of a chaplain who held aloft a crucifix. 



A.D. 1781-1797.] ACCESSION OP CATHERINE. 157 

Accompanied by a strong guard, she then repaired to the 
winter palace, had her little son sent for, and taking 
him in her arms, dressed in his night-clothes as he was, 
presented him from a balcony to the military and to the 
people, who had by this time assembled in large numbers 
and in high excitement. They hailed her with cries of 
" Long live Catherine our mother." A proposal to have 
her proclaimed Regent was defeated by Gregory Orloff, 
who insisted that things ought not to be done by halves, 
and produced a ready-made proclamation in her name as 
" Empress of all the Hussias, by the style and title of 
Catherine II." Forthwith she went to the cathedral of 
Kazan, when the Archbishop of Novgorod, clad in his 
sacerdotal robes, and attended by an immense array of 
priests, waited at the altar to greet her. Having sworn 
to respect the laws and religion of the realm, she was 
formally crowned, immediately after which she rode 
round the grand square, telling the troops she meant to 
be their general, and evoking the plaudits of the multi- 
tude who thronged to kiss her hand. Later in the day 
she received the allegiance of numerous grandees who 
crowded to the palace, among them the Chancellor 
Woronzoff. He who had been one of the imperial party 
in the morning, set off as soon as the news of what 
was taking place arrived, upon the pretence that his pre- 
sence might avail to check the revolution. In the course 
of the day a proclamation was issued, in which Catherine 
was made to say that, in obedience to the decrees of 
Divine Providence and the approving suffrages of her 
countrymen, she had ascended the throne. She continued 
— " We assure our faithful subjects that we will not fail, 
by night nor d ly, to invoke the Most High to bless 
our sceptre, and to make us to wield it to the mainte- 
nance of our orthodox religion, the security and defence 
of our dear country, and the equal administration of 
justice, as well as to put an end to all miseries, iniquities, 
and violence, by strengthening and fortifying our heart 
for the public good, not entertaining the least doubt that 
ill our loving subjects, as well for the salvation of theiy 



158 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

souls as for the honour of religion, will invariably observe 
the oath they have taken in the presence of Almighty 
God; and we hereby assure them of our imperial favour." 
In the evening she started for PeterhofF at the head of 
an army 20,000 strong, with intent to seize her husband 
Learning that he had fled, and that the place was left 
undefended, she was persuaded to repose for a few hours 
in a castle on the road, but her impatience hurried her 
forward, so that within twenty-four hours of the time 
she had left the palace as a fugitive, she re-entered it as 
a sovereign. The revolution had been swift, bloodless, 
and irresistible. 

Peter's Murder. — From the moment Peter received 
Bressau's note he behaved like one demented. Now ho 
gave orders that Catherine should instantly be put to death, 
Then he proposed an advance to the capital. Anon he 
resolved to stay where he was, and with the aid of his Hoi- 
stein troops to defend Peterhoff. These troops he ordered 
up. It was about the only rational thing he did, except to 
consult old Munich as to what he ought to do more. The 
wise advice given he disregarded till too late. It was to 
push on at once to Cronstadt, where there was a strong gar- 
rison and a fleet lying equipped. The imperial party did 
not set out till the tidings came that Catherine was on 
the march. Then, when Cronstadt was reached they found 
its guns turned against them, and in answer to a demand 
for admission to the Emperor, were informed that there 
was no Emperor. Again appeal was made to Munich, 
who replied they should row to Ptevel, take a ship of 
war and sail to Prussia, where the army was eighty 
thousand strong, at the head of whom the empire might 
be subdued in six weeks' time. This counsel was opposed 
by his mistress, and the plan decided on was a return to 
Oranienbaum, whence he sent a request to Catherine 
that he might be allowed to retire to Holstein with the 
Countess, her rival. The answer was a formula of abdi- 
cation sent to him to si<m. When the signature was 
obtained he was sent as a prisoner to Robschak. In a 
short time afterwards he was murdered. When the first 



a.d. 1781-1797.] Peter's murder. 159 

excitement of the revolution had abated, a feeling of pity- 
on his behalf sprang up, sucu as the conspirators who 
had dethroned him dreaded might become hazardous. 
The commander of the castle was one of them. He was 
joined by two of the brothers Orloffand another officer, 
who were introduced to the fallen Tsar. They recom- 
mended themselves to him by abusing the Empress, and 
then the four sat down to drink. Poison was poured 
into Peter's glass. He quickly suspected what had hap- 
pened, loudly exclaimed against the baseness, and called 
for milk. The governor of the prison entered, and, to 
silence his outcries, threw a napkin round his neck, 
which Alexis Orloff immediately pulled tight, so strang- 
ling the unhappy victim. The balance of proof is against 
the conjecture that Catherine was privy to this foul deed. 
Orloff reported it in a letter which implies distinctly tnat 
there was no preconcert with her. She carefully pre- 
served this document ; and its perusal five and thirty 
years after convinced her son, who had no liking for her, 
that in regard to this affair she was innocent. Still, no 
punishment was inflicted upon the perpetrators ; physi- 
cians were found to certify that the death was natural ; 
and the people were asked to believe it by a public exhi- 
bition of the corpse, carefully dressed. 

Catherine I. — From July, 1762, till her death, in 
November, 1796, Catherine ruled over Russia with a 
splendour and success that have very rarely been 
paralleled. There are respects in which her private 
conduct had a depth of vileness that would shame and 
appal the most degraded of her sex. There are also 
respects in which her public behaviour was marked by a 
vigour of mind, a consistent elevation and width of pur- 
pose, a self-reliant capacity for coping with the possi- 
bilities of events, that have won the admiration of all 
who are able to recognise intellectual superiority, and 
have exalted her t© a first rank among great rulers* 
Apart from her gross licentiousness she had, both as 
woman and sovereign, many attractive qualities. To 
strangers she was always courteous and kind, even when 



160 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP VU 

most dignified. To enemies she was often frank and 
placable, not so much from motives of policy, but because 
she could not retain resentment against those who were 
not actively opposing her. To friends she was ever open, 
true, and nobly indulgent. Throughout her loug reign 
she almost invariably triumphed over the immensely 
varied difficulties she set herself to face; and yet this 
uniformity of success was sometimes gained by the most 
dishonourable methods, for, where ambition and resolve 
were conjoined, never was any monarch more thoroughly 
unscrupulous. 

Her first business after she was seated on the throne 
was to reward those who had helped her ascent. This 
she did with a lavish liberality which always continued 
one of her prominent characteristics. Her next card waa 
to seek out capable and trustworthy advisers. This she 
did without any regard to their antecedents. Bestuchoff, 
whom her husband could never forgive, she recalled and 
endowed with a big pension. Biren, who was a childless 
man, she reinstated in his duchy of Courland. Prince 
George of Holstein, the uncle of her husband, the 
commander of the German troops, though arrested by 
the Orloffs, she at once released, creating him a field- 
marshal ; and he ever afterwards served her with a loyal 
devotedness. Even the stout old warrior, Munich, she 
overmatched and outshone. When he, a man of eighty 
years, was introduced to her, she said, " And you wished 
to fight against me ! " His reply was, " Madam, could I 
do less for a prince who redeemed me from captivity 1 " 
Instead of being offended, she at once took him into her 
confidence; listened with patience and appreciation to his 
long-meditated ideas about Turkey, which had grown 
stronger during his exile ; honoured him with many 
signal honours ; and appointed him governor of Livonia 
and Esthonia — which office he held for five years, till his 
death in 1767, aged eighty-six. 

The early years of her reign were, however, disturbed 
by the existence of many malcontents, and the appear- 
ance of many pretenders* The nobles, iae clergy tb$ 



&.©. 17S1-1797.] DOMESTIC REFORMS. 161 

soldiers, the people, all expected that she would do mora 
for them in a direct way than she saw meet to attempt ; 
and each of these classes grumbled over the disappoint- 
ment. The storm grew so high and fierce that it is said 
she visited the fortress of Schlusselburgh, where the 
wretched Ivan, the legitimate Tsar, was confined, in order 
to see whether her title to the crown could not be con- 
firmed by making him her husband ; but his appearance 
was as sorry as that of her first spouse, and his doltish- 
ness was even more painful. Soon afterwards, when she 
was in a distant part of the country, an attempt at his 
release was reported, accompanied by the intimation that 
he had been slain in the scuffle. The incident suggested 
many suspicions, one effect of which was that five or six 
impostors appeared, asserting his identity, and claiming 
his rights. Some two or three deceivers waxed even 
more bold — alleging that Peter had not been murdered, 
and claiming all the benefits of survivorship. With 
them Catherine dealt very summarily. They were put 
to ' death in the most public manner — each successive 
victim weakening the claim of those who came after. 
Meanwhile, the Tsarina used all her acts to conciliate 
those who sympathised with them ; and did so with that 
effect which seldom failed any of her great purposes. 

Domestic Reforms. — In four years' time any thought 
of opposition to her had died out. During the interval 
she had shaken her government clear of the Prussian 
complications into which Peter had rushed ; and, while 
she kept a very keen eye upon the course of foreign 
politics, she particularly bent her regards upon the 
improvement of domestic administration. She entered 
with zeal upon a series of reforms which in great measure 
changed the face of Hussia. Great daring was evinced 
in many of her actions, both private and public. 4.i;\ 
epidemic of small- pox, like that which raged shortly 
before she came lrom Germany, broke out soon after she 
was crowned. The preventive of inoculation was derided 
bv some as useless, was dreaded by others as hazardous, 
denounced by many as impious. Catherine sent fur 



162 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Yli 

Dr. Thomas Dimsdale, an eminent London physician, by 
whom she and her son were vaccinated. The perform- 
ance was wholly successful, and the fortunate doctor 
received a fee of £10,000, with the addition of a pension 
for life amounting to £500 a year, payable in London. 
He was a frequent guest at the imperial table, and he 
has left a record of the entertainment, which states that, 
" what enlivened it most was the unaffected ease and 
affability of the Empress with each of her guests (not 
more than twelve). We all had a share of her attention 
and politeness ; the conversation was kept up with a 
freedom and cheerfulness to be expected rather from 
persons of the same rank, than from subjects admitted to 
the honour of their sovereign's company." Equally 
enlightened and advanced was her conduct otherwise. 
In 1766 she convoked an assembly of deputies for con- 
sultation as to framing one code of laws for the empire. 
They reported that the diversities of race, custom, and 
civilization were too manifold to permit of a compilation 
being made, such as could be put in use with any good 
result. Thereupon she issued a commission to a company 
of learned men, charging them to traverse her vast 
dominions in order to report upon the geography, the 
climate, and the productions of the different provinces, 
as well as upon the manners and customs of their people. 
This great survey — an enlarged Domesday Book — would 
alone have sufficed to immortalise her name. She fol- 
lowed it up with great assiduity and aptitude. She 
encouraged agriculture, striving to attract skilled German 
colonists towards fertile regions, and planting out among 
them many sober, thrifty, and hard-working families. 
She founded numerous towns and villages, and wherever 
one of them was set down, a school was established in 
the midst. She patronised the higher education — extend- 
ing the Academy of Arts, and assigning a sum of sixty 
thousand roubles a year for the maintenance of an 
Academy of Sciences, to the supervision of which she 
invited a learned German professor, giving him a house 
and a life-pension. And in 1776 she promulgated a cods 



4.D. 1781-1797.] LITERATURE AND RELIGION. 163 

of laws she had herself prepared, certainly one of the 
most remarkable performances that ever owned female 
authorship. 

A New Code of Laws. — No doubt it was drawn in large 

part from such masters of jurisprudence as Beccaria and 
Montesquieu, but there was great co-ordinating power in 
its arrangement, and it was brightened by many gleams of 
original sense and dexterous adaptation. It comprised five 
hundred and twenty articles, and contained an apology, 
perhaps as good as could be offered, for the absolute 
power which it ascribed to the sovereign. Its author 
was highly complimented over it both by the King of 
Prussia and by Voltaire. Frederick wrote to her that 
" the ancients would have placed your imperial majesty 
between Lycurgus and Solon." In answer to the French 
philosopher she gave expression to very enlightened 
sentiments. " These laws," she said, " about which there 
has been so much talk, are not yet finished, who then 
can tell whether they are good for anything 1 Posterity, 
not ourselves, must decide that question. They are made 
for Europe and for Asia. What a difference of climate, 
of customs, of persons, even of ideas ! Still I must make 
them a dress which will serve them all. I have nearly 
an universe to form, to unite, and to preserve. 
Laws are made for all persons, and all are obliged to con- 
form to them; they should therefore be drawn up so that 
all may understand them ; still, they should be simple 
and concise, and should admit no latitude of interpreta- 
tion. . . . It is better to prevent crimes than to 
punish them. Would you prevent crimes, take all 
possible means to enlighten the people. Punishments 
should be speedy, proportioned to the crime and to the 
public. The most efficacious preventive is not the 
severity of punishment, but the certainty of it." 

Literature and Religion. — Mention may here be 
made of the facts that Catherine shared the sceptical 
opinions of her distinguished correspondents, that she 
maintained a brisk interchange of opinions with then? 
upon man j subjects, philosophical as well as polit* 



164 HISTORY OP RUSSIA, [CHAP. TIL 

cal ; and that her literary activity led to the production 
of a drama, founded on the story of her predecessor Olga, 
which was acted, of course with great applause, on the 
St. Petersburg stage, as well as of a volume entitled 
" Pieces from Russian History," which is really a model 
piece of writing. Her sympathy with the French ency- 
clopaedists naturally led her to despise the mediaeval 
extravagances of the Greek church. Yet, as a matter of 
policy, she conformed to its rites, and kept friends with 
its clergy, though she established universal toleration. 
The only exception to the complete liberty of conscience 
she conceded was in the case of Roman Catholicism, of 
whose encroachments upon the civil power she was 
exceedingly jealous. At intervals during her reign she 
issued ukases regulating the relations between the state 
and the professors of that faith. Moliilow was fixed as 
the seat of their archbishop, a right of veto was claimed 
upon the appointment of all ecclesiastical functionaries, 
foreign priests were debarred from settling in her 
dominions, and she prohibited the reception of any bull 
from the Pope, or other writing sent in his name, 
" ordering that the same shall be sent to our senate, who, 
after having examined their contents, and particularly 
anything that may appear contrary to the laws of this 
Russian empire, or to the rights of the ecclesiastical 
power which we have received from God, shall be obliged 
to communicate to us its opinion, and to wait our per- 
mission or prohibition before rendering any such bulls or 
writings." 

Civil Administration. — A like energy was infused 
into every department of public affairs. The empire was 
divided into forty-one provinces, over which governors and 
sub-magistrates were appointed by the senate, subject to the 
approval of the sovereign. The magnificence of the court 
eclipsed that of every other in Europe. The army was 
reorganised, and a conscription was instituted by which 
one recruit was drawn from every five hundred male 
inhabitants. A formidable rebellion, headed by an able 
man named Pougatelofl^ who aimed at rendering inde- 



4.D. 1781-1797.] FIRST PARTITION OF POLAND. 168 

pendent the provinces of the Don and the Volga, in- 
habited mainly by dissenters from the Greek church, was 
swiftly suppressed, and its leader executed, the Empress 
writing, very significantly, to the French king concerning 
him, " I shall keep his depositions secret, that they may 
not aggravate the disgrace of those who set him on." 
And all the while a vigilant regard was paid to foreign 
policy. 

The First Partition of Poland Planned. — Catherine's 
first exploit on the foreign field was performed in Poland. 
In 1764 the luxurious and apathetic king, Frederick 
Augustus, died. She resolved that her old friend Count 
Poniatowski should be chosen in his stead. Quoth she, 
" I will have him to be king, and king he shall be." 
By this time he had married the Princess Czartoryski, 
through which alliance he had become connected with 
the powerful family of the Jagellons. There was nothing 
so outrageous, therefore, in her proposal. Still, it cer- 
tainly would not have been carried but for her decisive 
action in advancing Russian troops close up to Warsaw. 
Sent as a friendly contingent, they remained for another 
purpose. Poniatowski, who took the title of Stanislaus 
Augustus, became exceedingly popular with his subjects, 
and he did his best to promote patriotic ideas. It soon 
became evident, however, that Catherine had ulterior 
purposes in his el-evation. Her representative, Prince 
Repnan, asserted an absolute sway at Warsaw, where the 
Diet was distracted by jealousies and alienations. These 
he fostered and made much of in a manner fitted to lead 
up to the consummation she designed, even that of 
extinguishing Polish independence, and dividing the 
country among its neighbours, seeing she could not hope 
to acquire the whole of it for herself. For this purpose she 
required to establish an understanding with the intended 
spoliators. There seems to be no doubt the project was 
first broached by Catherine during a visit paid to St. 
Petersburg by Prince Henry of Prussia, the King's 
brother, at the close of 1770= All Europe rang with 
accounts of the spbnlout V &t marked the festivities 



166 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Til. 

held in his honour. No suspicion was entertained as to 
the serious nature of the business which was transacted 
A secret treaty was negotiated by which the respective 
shares of the partners in this gigantic larceny were deter- 
mined, and arrangements were concluded for approaching 
Austria on the subject. Said the Empress to her guest, 
" Gain you Austria, and let her amuse France; England 
I will flatter; Turkey I will frighten." This programme 
was assiduously carried out. Misled by her son Joseph 
II., now associated with her in the government, Maria 
Theresa, who had ever spoken of Catherine with a con- 
temptuous hate as " cette femme," was induced to treat 
with her most intimately; and Austria, scandalously for- 
getful how, eighty years before, John Sobieski had saved 
her capital from the beleaguering Turks, was hurried into 
participation in tke contemplated iniquity. The process 
of frightening Turkey had already begun. Some time 
before, th@ Porte had pointed out to the cabinets of 
Europe the hazards of allowing the predominance at 
Warsaw which Russia was asserting; but nothing had 
come of the representation. In 1768, consequent upon 
a quarrel between the Roman Catholic prelates and 
nobility with the dissenters of Poland — Protestants 
and members of the Greek church — the number of the 
Russian troops had been increased, the Prince-archbishop 
of Cracow, and three other senators were st.nt to Siberia, 
and the Diet was subjected to fresh and more rigorous 
intimidation. This interference goaded the inhabitants 
of the provinces adjoining Turkey into revolt. They 
besought the aid of the Sultan, Mustapha III., which was 
readily given. He declared war against Russia at once. 
War with Turkey — a Russian Fleet in the Medi- 
terranean. — On her side Russia was eager for the fray; 
and the summer of 1 769 saw it begun. Mustapha had been 
far too precipitate, for his preparations were seriously 
defective. His armies were beaten all round, though the 
Russian successes were so inferior to what they might- 
have been that Frederick sneeringly spoke of the campaign 
as a contest between the one-eyed and the blind. Next; 



4,K>. 1781-1797.] WAR WITH TURKEY. 167 

season much more vigour was displayed. In Armenia 
and Transcaucasia great successes were won. The Crimea 
was invaded, Azoff and Taganrog again coming into 
Russian occupation. RomanzofF, who had the chief com- 
mand, speedily cleared Moldavia, receiving in its capital 
the homage of the boyards to Catherine. After two 
great battles, he acquired all the Turkish fortresses on 
the Danube and the Dniester, only two of them — Brailoff 
or Ibrail, which stood out for three weeks, and Bender, 
which offered a gallant defence for as many months — 
giving him much trouble. Further, acting on the advice 
of the aged Munich, who now paw a chance for the 
"oriental project" he had recommended thirty years 
before, a Russian fleet was sent from Cronstadt to the 
Mediterranean, carrying troops who were meant to rouse 
the Greeks to insurrection. Little success attended the 
operations on land, but the Turkish fleet was annihilated. 
Three British seamen — Yice-admiral Elphinstone, Commo- 
dore Greig, and Lieutenant Dugdale — were in command 
•on the Russian side. With only eight sail of the line 
and seven frigates, Elphinstone attacked a fleet of twenty- 
six vessels, some of them much bigger than his largest, 
compelling them to make for safety to the bay of Tchesme, 
between Siev and the mainland, where a number of 
Turkish merchantmen also lay. While a feigned attack 
was made from one opening, and a rigorous blockade 
was kept up at the other, Dugdale after nightfall sent a 
couple of fire-ships in amongst them. The proceeding 
attained its object. The whole flotilla, numbering about 
a hundred vessels, was destroyed, only one sixty-gun ship 
and three half-galleys escaping. Elphinstone would fair 
have carried the tidings of his victory to Constantinople, 
proposing to force the Dardanelles, and bombard the city. 
That the project was feasible can hardly be doubted; but 
Alexis Orloff, his nominal superior, demurred, and the 
idea was abandoned. The Turks had indirectly a dire 
revenge for the loss they had sustained. The crews of 
the Turkish ships infected the Russian sailors with the 
plague. It was thus spread over the empire, becoming 



168 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII, 

particularly dreadful in its ravages at Moscow, where it 
raged for years. It is said that not one-fourth of the 
dwellings in the city were exempt from the visitation, 
though the number of deaths was not stated. The beha- 
viour of the government in the circumstances was admi- 
rably prompt, wise, and humane. 

The Crimea Annexed. — In 1771 Turkey was bereft of 
the Crimea. A new Khan had lately been chosen, who 
was objectionable to some of the tribes. They refused to 
co-operate in the resistance offered to the Russians under 
Prince Dolgoruki, who forced the famous lines across the 
isthmus of Perekof with even greater ease than Munich 
and Lancy had done. At the same time he landed a force 
in the rear of their defenders. The new ruler was thus 
utterly disconcerted. In his bewilderment he took to 
Might, making his way after many wanderings to Con- 
stantinople, where he died of grief. Left without leader- 
ship, the Tartars everywhere submitted. Dolgoruki showed 
great discretion in dealing with them. He promised 
them the appointment of a Khan belonging to their 
ancient royal house, stipulating only that he should rule 
under the protection of Russia. The condition was 
accepted, and while fifty chiefs repaired to St. Peters- 
burg with a tender of allegiance, the Russian troops quietly 
took possession of the towns and fortresses throughout 
the peninsula. It was a poor compensation for this 
heavy and discouraging blow, that the Turks recovered 
Giurgevo, and otherwise improved their position some- 
what throughout the Danubian principalities. 

The Partition of Poland Carried Out. — Next year 
there was much tiilk of peace. It was started by Austria, 
who, immediately before her accession to the conspiracy 
against Poland, had concluded a convention with Turkey, 
whereby, ki return for the promise of a large subsidy, 
free admission to her commerce, and a guarantee of pro- 
tection to her merchant ships in the Levant, she pledged 
herself to an alliance. Instead of fulfilling this compact 
by helping Turkey to fight, she now pressed her to desist, 
the urgent recommendations made leading to an armistice, 



A.D. 1711-1797.] PARTITION OF POLAND CARRIED OUT. 169 

during which a conference of plenipotentiaries assembled 
at Bucharest to consider terms of peace. Meantime the 
tripartite treaty for the partition of Poland was sub- 
scribed. According to it, Prussia was to acquire five 
palatinates, and a part of Great Poland, amounting in 
all to over a thousand square leagues of very fertile land, 
and a million of new subjects; Austria four divisions of 
the kingdom, comprising two thousand seven hundred 
leagues, with two and a half millions of people; while 
Russia got no less than three thousand four hundred and 
forty miles of territory, with a population of a million 
ind a half. In the month of September the Austrian 
minister intimated t© the Polish king and senate the 
meditated robbery, his coadjutors coming forward with 
corroboration. Prussia found a pretext for her conduct 
in connection with the ancient rights of the Electors of 
Branderburgh and the Duke of Pomerania; Austria 
alleged certain pretences in connection with the Hun- 
garian crown; but Catherine having no antiquated claims 
to fall back upon, unblushingly declared that she was 
entitled to compensation for costs she had incurred in 
defending the republic. Poor King Stanislaus had 
nothing for it but to convoke the Diet," as he was told, 
in order to consider the proposed cession. He did so in 
a manifesto, which plaintively set forth that " there are no 
hopes from any quarter, and delay will only tend to draw 
down the most dreadful calamities upon the remainder of 
the dominions which are left to the republic." Withal, 
however, he had the spirit to point out that Poland was 
entitled, under the treaty of Oliva, concluded in 1660, to 
appeal to the guarantee of protection given by the very 
powers who now so coolly proposed dismemberment. 
Of course the appeal was useless. The nefarious aggres- 
sion was carried through. Surrounded by foreign bayonets 
the senate, after long debate, by a majority of six, ratified 
the cession, while in the lower house assent was carried 
by a single vote. The courts of London, Paris, Stock- 
holm, and Copenhagen remonstrated against the seizure, 
but mere remonstrances did nob count for much. In th« 



170 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

end the acquiescence of Britain was bought by conces- 
sions on the part of Russia to her commerce. France, 
debilitated by the misgovernment of Louis XV., was in 
no condition to intervene. Denmark and Sweden were 
at odds with each other, and were besides racked by 
domestic dissensions. Turkey was the only power that 
cared to do anything either to prevent, or to punish, 
this shameless act of brigandage. 

The Treaty of Kainardja. — The Bucharest conference 
was broken up indignantly, and the war was renewed 
with greater fury and zeal than before. In this cam- 
paign the Turks gained a number of signal successes. 
.Romanoff, who again commanded the Russian hosts, was 
discomfited with enormous loss at Silistria, at Shumla, 
at Varna; while at Rustchuk the Ottoman forces assumed 
the offensive, routed the besiegers, and captured many 
prisoners, among them Prince Repnin, who was sent to 
Constantinople. The fortune of the war seemed to have 
turned, when, all at once, whether from despair of co-ope- 
ration, or disgust at the attitude assumed by the other 
European powers, or apprehensive of a great rally on the 
part of their opponent, the Turks gave in. The Sultan 
was a valetudinarian; he was impressed by a supersti- 
tion which pronounced the name of Mustapha unfortu- 
nate; and latterly he abdicated in favour of his brother, 
who made haste to conclude a pacification. Mainly 
through the exertions of SurwavrofF, who commanded at 
Hirsova, and now first displayed that alacrity and deter- 
mination which made him afterwards so celebrated, a 
change was wrought to Turkish detriment upon the 
aspects of the war; but it was not of such moment as 
reasonably to account for the arrangement made by the 
treaty of Kainardja which was negotiated in July 1774, 
and, through a little bit of manoeuvring on the Russian 
side, was subscribed on the anniversary of the day when 
the convention of the Pruth was concluded. Russian 
writers have always dilated with a suspicious earnestness 
on the magnanimity displayed in this bargain. It is 
quite true that its terms were much under what had been 



A D. 1781-1797. j TREATY OP KAXNARDJA. 171 

Btickled for at Bucharest. But it is also true that the 
Turks were undeniably outwitted. Not one stipulation 
about Poland was admitted into the treaty, though the 
wrongs of Poland formed the occasion of the war. 
Turkey got back Moldavia and Wallachia, but subject to 
a stipulation that, " as the circumstances of these princi- 
palities may require, the ministers of the court of Russia 
at Constantinople may remonstrate in their favour;" 
while another article is capable of being construed, as 
Russia has repeatedly construed it, into a recognition of 
a Russian protectorate over all Greek Christians through- 
out Turkey. The Crimea was not annexed to Russia; 
but it was declared to be independent of Turkey, while 
Kertch and Yenikale, Azof? and Kilburn, were given to 
Russian keeping. A right to station consular represen- 
tatives of Russia throughout the Turkish empire was 
granted, but there was no provision made for any reci- 
prc ity in that respect. Finally, Russia acquired a title 
to the free navigation of the Danube and the Black Sea. 
In all these respects she gained not only immediate 
benefit, but a potent means of future influence. In this 
view Yon Hanmer, the Turkish historian, sees in the 
treaty a great note of Turkish decadence. He describes 
it as " containing the germs of all that followed at 
Adrianople." Favourable though it was for them, 
the Russians soon repented of their lenity in con- 
senting to it. 

On the western side they had almost no trouble. 
At home Catherine had no more engrossing business 
than to keep up the splendours of her court, and 
attend to the domestic interests of her son. In these 
circumstances she had ample leisure for activity else- 
where. She intrigued in Moldavia and Wallachia, 
encouraging the Christian population to regard her as 
their protector. She intrigued in the Crimea, causing 
the displacement of the new Khan, who had not proved 
sufficiently obsequious, and getting hirn superseded by a 
more pliant tool. Hardly had he been appointed than a 
quariei arose betwixt him and his brother, the governor 



172 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. Vtt 

of the Kuban. Avail was taken of the dispute to march 
in a strong Russian force, to constrain both functionaries 
to resign, and to incorporate with Russia the whole pen- 
insula, a vast territory peopled by a million and a half 
of inhabitants. Thus fell the last of the Tartar domina- 
tions that had played so important a part in Russian 
story, Turkey fumed and threatened over the annexa- 
tion; but was coerced into giving formal assent by a 
treaty executed in 1780, supplemented to that of Kain- 
ardja. France was the only other nation that raised a 
word of demur, and her opposition was merely verbal. 

Prince Potemkin. — The agent who conducted this 
successful movement was the Prince Potemkin. No 
more extraordinary person figures in Russian annals. 
He was one of the dozen men who held in succession the 
post of "aide-de-camp general" to the Tzarina — in other 
words, who were her recognised lovers and attendants. He 
filled the disgraceful office only for a period of fifteen 
months, but for more than twenty years he had a predo- 
minating influence in her councils ; and, till his death, 
Catherine deferred to him as she deferred to no one else. 
He was an astonishing compound of strength and weak- 
ness, vanity and reserve, calculation and impulse, energy 
and sloth, fickleness and resolve, sumptuous extravagance 
and self-denying austerity — 

" A man so various that he seemed to be, 
Not one, but all mankind's epitome." 

He was omnipotent in the empire, but he never put 
any restraint on his own passions, however costly or 
difficult their gratification. When the whim took him, 
he would send officers a distance of two thousand miles 
— from Kherson, in the Crimea, to Riga, for oysters — or 
to St. Petersburg for sterlet soup ; yet at other times he 
would, without warning, start himself on journeys of 
equal length, travelling like a common courier, and living 
on the black bread of the peasantry. At times he entered 
with prodigal zest on the enjoyments of power, pomp, 
and luxury; but at other times he seemed so utterly 



AD. 1781-1797.] AN AUSTRIAN ALLIANCE. 173 

sated with them that he would wander about his palace 
biting his finger-nails in moody abstraction, or chuck 
about his diamonds, which he could weigh out by pounds 
upon pounds, as a child plays with peas. He had most 
of the vices that debase and torment human nature; yet 
he was a man of grand conceptions and great sagacity. 
Munich's " oriental project" he patronised with a zealous 
favour. Catherine was prejudiced towards it, and he 
made it his business to foster and guide this inclination. 
In 1779, while the arrangements about the Crimea were 
in hand, he urged upon her a comprehensive and daring 
scheme for Turkish extinction. Britain was then at war 
with her revolted colonists in America. Potemkin pro- 
posed that Russia should help her, the assistance to ■ be 
paid for by the cession of Minorca, which he would have 
made a' station for a Russian fleet, a rallying-place for 
Greek disaffection, a rendezvous whence there might be 
repeated on a large scale the Orloff and Elphinstone 
movement. The scheme miscarried, though its author 
continued to preach that a British alliance was the surest 
method to the attainment of Russian success; and its 
ultimate object filled the mind of Catherine for years. 
Her second grandson was born at this period. She had 
him named Constantine. Greek women were orocured 
to nurse him, so that, as was said, he might suck in the 
Greek language with his milk. In every way he was 
encouraged to think of himself as destined to fill a Greek 
throne at Constantinople. 

An Austrian Alliance. — As British aid was unattain- 
able, a fresh Austrian alliance was by and by concluded, 
with the view of realising this design. The bargain was 
ratified at personal interviews between Catherine and 
Joseph II. He accompanied her in 1787 on a triumphal 
progress through her newly-acquired Crimean province, 
which was named Taurida, where Potemkin received 
them with prodigious display. They met at Kherson, 
over the southern gate of which there was inscribed in 
Greek characters the significant intimation, " By this 
the way leads to Byzantium." They met again soon 



174 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Vtt. 

afterwards at St. Petersburg, whither Joseph went on a 
visit, the magnificence of his entertainment being such 
that he h;id to beg a release from the festivities contrived 
in his honour. No pains were taken to hide the motive 
and end of their deliberations. It was sought to include 
France in the bargain by a promise of Egypt as her 
share of the spoil, but she refused the bribe. The Porte 
having been goaded into a declaration of hostilities, 
Catherine, on the 8th of April, 1788, issued a manifesto, 
T 0i which she reproached Turkey with a violation of 
treaties, protested that she was innocent of all the cala- 
mities the war might engender, and declared that she 
bad a right to rely "not only on the justice of God and 
the assistance of her allies, but on the devout aspirations 
of the Christian world for the triumph of her cause." 

The triumph did not come. It was the boast of 
Potemkin that he would batter down the Ottoman 
empire in two campaigns ; but he miscalculated. The 
war lasted four years, and its conclusion was of a nuga- 
tory character. At first considerable successes were won 
by the armies of the coalition. In two years, however, 
Joseph was tired of the contest. Under Marshal Laudon 
\is troops had captured Belgrade and Semendria, and 
nad advanced into the heart of Servia, when home- 
troubles put an arrest on their movement. France was 
at enmity, the Netherlands were in revolt, Hungary and 
Bohemia were discontented. Soon after Joseph sickened 
and died. His wiser brother, who succeeded him, made 
haste to end hostilities. This was done by the treaty of 
Sistova, according to which Austria relinquished great 
part of her conquests, and the boundary -line betwixt the 
two empires was re-arranged much as it had been drawn 
two centuries before. 

The Capture of Ismael. — That Catherine resented this 
defection is certain, but for a time the contest was con- 
tinued with renewed vigour by her troops. At the close 
of 1790 their prospects were of the most reassuring 
character. A Russian navy rode in the Black Sea, 
intercepting the supplies of corn for Constantinople, 



A.D. 1781-1797.] THE CAPTURE OP ISMAEL. 175 

Throughout the Danubian provinces no Turkish force 
dared show itself in the field. The strongly-fortified 
place of Ismael, the key of the Lower Danube, alone 
hindered a Russian march by the coast road upon Varna. 
The reduction of this place Potemkin rightly regarded as 
the indispensable preliminary to a safe advance. It had 
been invested for months without the slightest impression 
being made upon it. The story goes that, as the prince 
began to wax impatient, he was one evening playing at 
cards, when a lady of the party, pretending that the bits 
of pasteboard enabled her to divine the future, announced, 
" In three weeks Ismael will be yours." He replied, 
" I know how it may be gained much sooner;" and forth- 
with penned a note to his stern lieutenant, SuwarrofF, 
" Let Ismael be taken in three days, at any cost." No 
message could have been more welcome to this daring 
and pitiless soldier. He had the grace to make a demand 
for surrender, which was answered in oriental style by 
an intimation that " the Danube must first cease to 
flow, or the heavens bow to the earth." The response 
was that, unless " a white flag was hung out that day, 
the place would be taken by assault and the garrison 
be put to the sword." This menace being disregarded, 
because disbelieved, the signal for attack was given at 
five o'clock next morning, being Christmas day. After 
a struggle of the most desperate character, which endured 
for twelve hours, the Russians, who seemed to be 
animated by the appalling energy of their commander, 
were triumphant. The garrison were completely over- 
powered. For the next three days the place was given 
over to pillage and slaughter. Suwarroff computed that 
30,000 persons were slain and 10,000 made prisoners, 
while, as he phrased it, " the soldiers shared gold and 
silver by handfuls." His estimate of the loss has been 
generally supposed to be under the mark. At any rate, 
the Turkish prisoners were engaged for the best part of 
a week in throwing the corpses of their countrymen into 
the Danube, it being impossible to dig pits for their 
reception with sufficient rapidity, while the hazard of 



17G HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

epidemic disease was very great. The pithy despatch 
in which Suwarroff announced his victory is well 
known: — " Glory to God and the Empress ! Ismael's 
ours." 

The Treaty of Jassy. — The effect of this victory was 
overwhelming. The Russian strength was launched in 
full force upon the confounded and panic-stricken Turks. 
They were driven from post to post, till at length the 
invaders menaced Varna, the sea-key to Roumelia. Its 
magazines were cut off from communication with fts 
defenders. Its reduction was imminent. Should it fall, 
the road was opened to Adrianople, where no stand could 
be made, and then the capital was exposed to an assault 
which it seemed hopeless to parry. The Sultan shut 
himself up in his palace. Consternation prevailed among 
the people. The body of the Ulemas, as a counsel of 
despair, resolved on humbly suing for peace. To their 
own surprise their petition was favourably entertained. 
In an incredibly short space of time the treaty of Jassy 
was negotiated. It was subscribed in January, 1792. 
By it Russia ceded all that she had won in the Danubian 
provinces, confining her claim of territorial aggrandise- 
ment to the country round the northern shores of the 
Black Sea, where she had Oczakoff on the one side, and 
where she speedily planted Odessa on the other. There 
was, besides, a stipulation made for a large indemnity ; 
but this Catherine renounced as soon as it had been for- 
mally agreed to. 

The motives for this sudden change of resolution were 
various. There had been in 1790 a short though sharp 
war with Sweden, whose king, Gustavus III., had been 
a guest at St. Petersburg a few years before. He seems to 
have suspected that it was meant to entrap him into undue 
concessions, and to have left with the notion that he 
would choose his own time for counteracting the plot. 
He took avail of the Turkish conflict to try whether he 
could execute this design. The trial came to an unhappy 
end. For a brief period a gleam of success brightened 
his fortunes. A powerful fleet came within sight of 



A.D. 1781-1797.] POLAND AGAIN DIVIDED. 177 

Cronstadt, blockaded the port, and created so much alarm 
that terror reigned in St. Petersburg, and the Empress 
was advised to seek safety in flight. She refused, calmly 
remarking, " If driven hence, we shall find a better capi- 
tal in the south." Ere the end of the season Admiral 
Greig had swept the Swedish marine from the north seas, 
and Gustavus was fain to re-establish the treaties of Abo 
and Newstadt. Plainly, Russian acquiescence in such a 
settlement could only have been granted by a desire to 
keep Sweden quiet. Its conclusion was a bitter disap- 
pointment to the British Minister, William Pitt, who 
had united Holland and Prussia in an anti-Ru&sian 
league, had dictated the terms of the Austrian peace at 
Sistova, had coerced Denmark into an abandonment of 
her Russian alliance, and who (despite the energetic 
remonstrances of Charles Fox and the British Whigs) 
was threatening to send a British fleet to the Baltic to 
do what the Swedes had failed to accomplish, unless 
Catherine should consent to make terms with the Porte. 
She consented, mainly because of a new incident which 
gave an opportunity for carrying out her designs in a 
different direction. 

Poland again Divided. — On the 3rd of May, 1791, a 
new constitution was proclaimed for what remained of 
Poland. It contemplated the establishment of a heredi- 
tary throne. It contemplated also the abolition of the 
famous liberum veto, that absurd provision of the consti- 
tution which allowed to every member of the Diet the 
power of arresting all procedure, concerning which Lord 
Brougham has said, " No human contrivance was ever 
invented so effectual to tie up the will and paralyse the 
judgment of a deliberative assembly;" while Montesquieu 
has remarked that, " through the great care it took for 
the liberty of every one, it caused the oppression of all." 
Other reforms were proposed of a sort which the Prussian 
monarch, the nephew of Frederick the Great, heartily 
approved, and upon which Mr. Burke, then launched 
on the full tide of his rage against French doctrines, 
lavished an unbounded approbation. But Catherine dis- 



178 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

liked them, and saw how she could turn her antipathy to 
account. Twenty years before she had stood forth as the 
advocate of the Polish dissenters, the upholder of a free 
toleration. Now she appeared as the determined enemy 
of civil reform. The veterans she had recalled from 
Turkey were marched straight into Poland, once more to 
overawe the Diet. She wiled the Prussian monarch to 
become an abettor in this work by the lure of a partici- 
pation in a fresh robbery. He had approved the consti- 
tution; she had denounced it as intolerable; he had bound 
himself by solemn pledges to make common cause with 
Poland against any foreign intervention ; but what were 
fidelity and truth that they should bar the chance of 
filching Dantzic and Thorn, and the rich palatinate of 
Posen ? 

With an infamous facility he joined in the repre- 
sentation that, in order to preserve one half of diminished 
Poland from the contagion of French principles, it was 
requisite that he and Catherine should divide the other 
and bigger half betwixt them. This was done by the 
convention of Grodno, concluded in 1793, by which 
Russia took 83,000 square miles of Polish ground, and 
Prussia 22,500, leaving to the truncated republic no 
more than 40,000, imposing also a stipulation that its 
army should not exceed 15,000 men. This miserable 
little state was really allowed no more than a nominal 
independence. Its vassalage to Russia was so complete 
that its endurance was only a matter of time. A brief 
period sufficed to end it. In 1794 the brave and high- 
spirited Kosciusko, who had served under Lafayette with 
the insurgent American colonists, was implored by some 
of his countrymen to head an effort for getting rid of 
an intolerable tyranny. His intrepid conduct, and the 
spirit of enthusiasm he aroused, encouraged for a while 
the hope of deliverance. Three times over he defeated 
superior numbers of Russians. Three times over the 
contest ended in a drawn battle, which his tactical skill 
enabled him to improve. Warsaw, the capital of what 
was still styled independent Poland, was possessed by 



A.D. 1781-1797.] DEATH OP CATHERINE. 179 

Russian troops, whom a popular rising cleared out. 
Everywhere, over the newly-annexed territories, the 
armies of occupation were driven back. No doubt the 
expulsion was marked by some regrettable severities, but 
they were not such as to justify the atrocities that were 
perpetrated by way of punishment and revenge. Austrian, 
Prussian, and Russian troops were all ordered up. The 
fierce Suwarroff was instructed to re-take Warsaw. He 
stormed Praga, one of its suburbs, which was garrisoned 
by 30,000 men, with a pitiless ferocity and cruel carnage, 
that far outvied even what had been witnessed at Ismael. 
Only 3400 persons were saved as prisoners. The rest 
were slain by sword or bayonet, or were driven into the 
Vistula before the eyes of the inhabitants on the other 
side. Next day Suwarroff entered the city, which he 
treated as a conquered place. On the 1st of November he 
ordered a grand " Te Deum" to be sung to the God of 
armies in honour of his victory. On the 25th the wretched 
Stanislaus resigned his crown, the three allied powers 
guaranteeing him a pension. In the following May 
Poland was wiped from the map of nations by a third 
treaty of partition, in which all the three were par- 
ticipants. 

Death of Catherine. — This was the last great achieve- 
ment which the Empress saw accomplished, if exception 
be allowed for the final annexation of Courland, which 
followed as a sequel to the swallowing up of Poland. 
Other projects she had planned. One was a great coalition 
for the purpose of subjugating or overawing revolu- 
tionary France, which broke down through the assassina- 
tion of Gustavus III. of Sweden in 1791. She continued 
ambitious, however, of playing a grand part as arbitress 
of Europe, and in 1795 she formed a confederacy with 
the leading neighbours of France for effecting her re- 
straint, entering at the same time into a special treaty 
with Britain, who had so lately opposed her in the matter 
of Turkey. That matter she continued to regard with 
an eager anxiety, which prompted a sleepless vigilance. 
There is some evidence that she entertained a design for 



180 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VII. 

twisting round the part she proposed to herself in 
European troubles, into an instrument for furthering her 
cherished project of continuing the Byzantine empire by 
a Russian sequel. The same motive has been attributed 
to an invasion of Persia, which she simultaneously un- 
dertook. Under the command of Valerian Duboff, a 
great army had penetrated eastward past Derbend, the 
commander being empowered to set up a new Shah. 
The conjecture is that he would then have fallen upon 
the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, forcing the Ottoman 
power to denude itself of its European troops for their 
defence, and so throwing open the way to Constantiple. 
Whatever truth there may be in these speculations, they 
all suffered collapse by her sudden death in November, 
1796, at the age of sixty-seven. 

Undoubtedly the most notable woman of her own day, 
she has had few compeers in any age. Her ambition was 
&« v .he loftiest kind, though it sometimes stooped to the 
meanest artifices. When she mounted the throne only 
twenty-two millions of people paid her homage. When 
she died the number had grown to thirty-six millions, 
one-half the increase arising through territorial acquisi- 
tions. The whole of Little Tartary and the Crimea, the 
island of Taman and the count.*;/ cf Kuban, the princi- 
palities of Georgia, Imeritia, Mo^ g.elia, and the passes 
of the Caucasus, came under her sway. By means more 
gradual, more gentle, and certainly more efficacious than 
those which Peter the Great employed, she strove for the 
security and improvement of her vast empire, and it in 
impossible to regard without wonder the extent of the 
resources which were developed during her reign. The 
splendours of her court, combining, as they did, Asiatic 
pomp with European grandeur, threw into the shade those 
of every other; upon occasions of her great winter mas- 
querades she often received upwards of eight thousand 
guests, who were enabled to enjoy themselves without 
confusion and without constraint. By extreme luxury, 
by the wealth she lavished on her favourites, the glory 
that accrued to her arms, her sedulous attention to affairs, 



A. ft. 1781-1797.] CHARACTER OF CATHERINE. 181 

the vast scope of her conceptions, the uniform success of 
her plans, she compelled both admiration and astonish- 
ment. Everything about her was on a large scale; even 
her vices were so huge as to be appalling in their turpi- 
tude, and in their seeming incornpatability with the good 
and engaging qualities she displayed. She exerted the 
powers of a tyrant in a style that went far to realise her 
dearest wish, that of figuring as an autocrat at onm 
irresponsible and idolised 1 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FIRST HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The Reign of Paul (1796-1801).— The Grand Duke 
Paul Petrovitch was proclaimed as Emperor and Auto- 
crat of all the Russias, by the title of Paul I., on the day 
after Catherine's death. She had never regarded him 
with much of love or confidence, and he soon showed 
how greatly he had dreaded and disliked her. She had 
kept him poor, and at a distance. Partly through this 
cause, but mainly through the influence of his consort, 
Maria Feoderowna, a princess of Wurtemburg, his life 
had been reserved and decent, if not exemplary — a strong 
contrast in every way to that of his sovereign and 
mother. Immediately after his accession he had the 
dust of his father brought from the obscure grave where 
it had reposed for four and thirty years, laid out in state 
alongside of his mother's corpse, and buried in the same 
grave. The bones of Potemkin, who had died on the 
roadside on his way from Jassy, where he had been 
assisting to negotiate the treaty of 1792, were raised 
from their resting-place in the church of Kherson, over 
which Catherine had intended to build a splendid monu- 
ment, and were pitched into a hole in the moat of the 
fortress, so that no one could say, " Here lies Potemkin." 
Whatever the late Empress had most approved, that the 
new Tsar most unhesitatingly condemned and annulled. 
At first there was a disposition to honour his conduct and 
respect his motives, but as his incessant and unaccount- 
able activity went on it began to work confusion, mis- 
chief, and wretchedness, till men learned to note and fear 
a repetition of the rigours and eccentricities which had 
made his father's reign intolerable. 



A.D. 1796-1801.] PETER AND PAUL COMPARED. 183 

Peter and Paul Compared. — The resemblance betwixt 
the two men was remarkable from the first, and it was 
soon developed with like dire effects. They were similar 
in appearance : Paul had inherited the stunted figure, the 
mean aspect, the Tartar physiognomy of Catherine's 
husband. Their education had been conducted on a like 
plan : both had been kept ignorant of public business, 
and had been treated rather as prisoners of state than 
heirs to the crown. They exhibited corresponding tastes 
in their employments and recreations : as Peter had 
played at soldiers in his fortress of Oranienbaum, so did 
Paul in his retirement at Paviosky, and each entertained 
the delusion that he could rule an empire as he had done 
his household, ordering thirty rail] ions of people much as 
he had ordered his lackeys and ( 'xly-guards. In making 
this impossible attempt, each ran into a fussy meddle- 
someness which became incredibly capricious, harassing, 
and cruel : to recount the ordinances that succeeded each 
other in a single month would be to present an amazing 
recital of foolish enactments directed to frivolous ends, 
and set forth with perplexing minuteness. The morale 
of both was low : if Paul did not sin as grossly as his 
predecessor, his provocations were less serious and formid- 
able. That both were mad can hardly be questioned — 
though the insanity of Paul became the most furious and 
pronounced. 

Shortly after his accession he opened the prison doors 
of Kosciusko, offering him an estate, with numerous serfs, 
an offer which was declined. As a counterpart to this, 
the King of Poland was brought from Grodno, was kept 
as a prisoner about the court, and was subjected to such 
indignities as moved universal pity. The most rigorous 
etiquette was established in all the royal arrangements, 
and any breach of it was punished with remorseless 
severity. Wherever the Tsar appeared, those who set 
eyes upon him were ordered to flop down on their knees, 
though it were in the mud. Visitors to the royal gardens 
were compelled to walk through them bareheaded. The 
philosophy of clothes engaged much attention, and num- 



184 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIIL 

berless fantastic rules respecting them were ordained. 
Top-boots were forbidden. To wear trousers instead of 
knee-breeches was a sufficient cause for arrest. Round 
hats were decreed to be even more abominable. The 
uniform of the troops was changed half-a-dozen times in 
as many months. They were harassed by perpetual 
drills, and were kept in readiness to turn out at any 
moment, being often called three or four times in a day. 
The arbitrary whims of the Tsar were endless, and spared 
no class. Meeting an officer who wore a long pelisse, 
and had given his sword to be carried by a servant, Paul 
was so offonded that he immediately ordered the men to 
change places. Coming upon a nobleman who was look- 
ing on at some labourers planting trees, he enquired, 
"What are you doing 1 ?" "Seeing the men work," was 
the reply. " Strip off his pelisse and give him a spade," 
was the immediate order, When in good temper his 
conversation was maundering and silly, but if women 
were present he made it disgustingly obscene. He was 
as ready with his stick or his fists as Ivan the Terrible 
had been. Thus, he rushed upon an officer who fell 
from his horse at a review, and kicked him viciously. 
He thought it an excellent joke at a court reception to 
slap the face of some unsuspicious guest, and then 
chuckle forth the explanatory remark, " The salutation of 
me, Paul, with mine own hand ! " 

War in Italy and Holland. — In foreign affairs his 
frivolity, his fickleness, his violence, had full scope. At 
first he detested the French Revolution. His dislike was 
shown characteristically. He issued an ukase ordering 
the French word " magasin " to be painted out from every 
shop-front ; forbidding students to a"pply the word " re- 
volution" to the movements of the heavenly bodies; 
and instructing the managers of theatres that on their 
play-bills they should print " permission " instead of 
" liberty." His opposition soon took a more formidable 
shape, for the victorious march of the French troops to 
the gates of Vienna thoroughly alarmed him, and be 
joined with enthusiasm the league formed to drive back 



A.D. 1796-1801.] WAR IN ITALY AND HOLLAND. 185 

the armed apostles of democracy. Hitherto Russian 
soldiers had never advanced beyond Poland. Now one 
strong contingent entered Germany, and another was 
sent south to Italy. After a time SuwarrofF, the short, 
pug-nosed, large-mouthed old man, the idol of the Russian 
army, was recalled from the disgrace into which he had 
fallen through Lis contemptuous criticism of the Tsar's 
tailoring, and was sent to command south of the Alps. 
He manifested all his old swiftness and strength. Sweep- 
ing like a simoom over North Italy, he routed both 
~M oreau and Macdonald, and at Parma, at Trebbia, at 
Novi, and elsewhere, taught astonished Frenchmen that 
they had to deal with a man who despised the formal 
tactics of Austria, and was as averse as Napoleon himself 
to regulate his movements by the instructions of an 
Aulic council. Paul was delighted. Pie created Suwarroff 
Prince Italianiski, and ordaiued that henceforth he should 
be deemed the greatest general of ancient or modern 
times. But the Austrian council were terrified by their 
own successes. They interdicted the Archduke Charles 
from carrying the war into France. Suwarroff was shifted 
to Switzerland. He crossed the St. Gothard amid such 
difficulties that even his men began to murmur and 
falter, whereupon he threw himself on the ground, 
beseeching them to trample on him and bury him, for 
nothing remained for him save to die. Instead, they 
took fresh heart, carried him forward in their arms, and 
made the passage in safety. It was only to find that the 
incompetency of his colleague had sacrificed the forces 
under him, and wrecked the arrangements for a junction. 
For the first and only time in his life Suwarrotf had to 
give ground. He felt it would be madness to engage the 
forces that swarmed around him. His retreat was 
accomplished in a masterly manner, though his troops 
suffered much. 

This incident, coinciding with the ignominious failure 
of the Russo-British expedition to Holland under the 
Duke of York, utterly changed the temper of Paul. He 
conceived that he had been betraved. S'r ( w ;ut< it was 



186 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [OHAP. VIJI. 

recalled, degraded, loaded with invectives and reproaches, 
and so scurvily used that he shut himself up, dying socn 
afterwards from sheer vexation. Austria and Britain 
became hateful to the Tsar, whose ministers he insulted, 
and whose friendship he repudiated. He conceived a 
violent admiration for Napoleon, who very skilfully 
played upon his weaknesses, and ingratiated himself into 
his favour. From being enemies they suddenly became 
allies. Paul entertained all manner of foolish projects as 
to how hr» could help his new-found friend. Some three 
hundred British ships lay in Russian harbours waiting 
till the spring should open the Baltic for navigation. 
He laid an embargo upon them, seized their cargoes, and 
carried off their crews to prison. He vapoured a good 
deal about an invasion of British India. He penned a 
challenge to the other sovereigns of Europe, in which, as 
a method of " putting an end to the wars by which it had 
been desolated for eleven years," he invited them to meet 
him in single combat, " bringing with them, as seconds 
and esquires, their most enlightened ministers and able 
generals, such as Thurgott, Pitt, Bernstoff," while lie 
would take with him Counts Pahlen and Kutousoff — the 
one his prime minister, the other a Turkish valet he had 
taken into favour. This precious document appeared in 
the St. Petersburg Gazette, and was translated into other 
languages at its author's request. Nor was this the most 
distinct token of his insanity. Life in St. Petersburg 
became unbearable. Domiciliary visits were made at all 
hours by a secret police who were under the Tsar's 
orders ; midnight arrests were frequent ; the road to 
Siberia was crowded by exiles ; and no one knew where 
the wrath of the capricious tyrant might next alight. 
He had begun to suspect his wife, whom he subjected to 
cruel usage. He imprisoned his eldest son, whom he had 
always kept mistrustfully near himself, his prejudices 
having been quickened by a report that Catherine had 
meant to nominate the young man as her immediate 
successor. At last his two friends, Pahlen and Kutousoff, 
saw that something behoved to be done in order to curb him. 



A.D. 1796-1801.] ASSASSINATION OP PAUL. 187 

His Assassination. — The conspiracy which they or- 
ganised for this purpose was widely ramified. Its head 
was Pahlen, a grave and self-contained man of irre- 
proachable character, who had made a favourable impres- 
sion upon Paul when he visited Riga as grand duke, 
and from whom he never withdrew his confidence. Its 
hand was Beningsen, who commanded the guard at the 
grand new palace of St. Michael. Among the most 
active agents were the three brothers Zubolf, the eldest 
of whom was the last recognised favourite of the Empress 
Catherine. The evening of the carnival was chosen for 
the execution of their design. Paul had spent it with his 
mistress — his wife and theyounger members of their family 
being confined to separate apartments in the building. 
At midnight his room was entered, access being obtained 
by a private way, and a hussar who slept in an antechamber 
having been cut down. The noise awoke the Tsar, who 
strove to escape by a secret staircase to his wife's rooms, 
but he was unable to work the spring. He then hid 
himself behind a barricade of tables and chairs. When 
discovered he first threatened, then tried to bribe, and 
finally besought and adjured. Finding words vain he 
struck out furiously, with a chair for his weapon; he 
next tried to jump from a high window, but was pulled 
back, after having his hand cut by the shivered glass; 
and then he was knocked down by a heavy blow. All 
the while he had been pressed to sign a deed of abdi- 
cation, a form of which was held out to him. He tore 
the paper and vehemently refused compliance with any 
request of the kind, even when clinging to the knees of 
those he besought to spare him. Wearied alike of his stub- 
bornness and of his importunities, Beningsen exclaimed, 
" We have crossed the Rubicon ; if we spare his life, we 
shall die before the setting of to-morrow's sun; we shall 
be his victims." Thereupon Nicholas Zuboff undid the 
sash he wore as a cavalry officer, twisted it round the 
imperial neck, and gave one end to a fellow-conspirator. 
They drew tightly, and, after a few convulsive struggles, 
the murder was accomplished. Thus the resemblance to 



188 HISTORY OP RUSSIA [CHAP. VIIL 

tis father, which distinguished his life, was carried out 
to the end. 

Reign oi Alexander. — Much controversy has been 
waged as to whether the Grand Duke Alexander was 
privy to the assassination. The weight of evidence is 
adverse to the idea. At most, an indirect and remote 
connivance is all that can be urged against him with any 
show of reason. His accession to the throne was eagerly 
welcomed. Much was hoped for from what was known 
of his temperament and training. He was naturally a 
man of clement disposition, amiably sentimental, of a 
judgment which was rather well-intentioned than strong. 
At the instance of his grandmother, his mind had been 
carefully cultivated by a tutor of her choice, Caesar la 
Harpe, a Swiss republican and latitudinarian philosopher, 
whose teachings retained their influence even after he 
had passed through a period of mystic religious enthu- 
siasm. There was a certain softness in his moral fibre, 
which made him weak and pliant at more than one great 
crisis of his life. He did much for his country in a pre- 
eminently difficult time; but he failed to do all he might 
have accomplished for her at a less perplexed and anxious 
epoch, or to win for himself that exalted and enduring 
respect which would have accrued to a man of more 
robust decision, or of more consistent integrity. 

Enmity to Napoleon. — At once he reversed the course 
of imperial conduct in relation to foreign affairs, thereby 
powerfully affecting the issues of the war then raging, 
and leading up to the treaty of Amiens, subscribed in 
March, 1802. That treaty proved only a short-lived 
truce, for the violation of which it is difficult to say 
whether Britain or France was most to blame. Alexander 
sought to mediate betwixt them, but his intervention 
found no favour. After hostilities were renewed he 
would have gladly acted against Buonaparte, but he could 
act effectively only through an intermediate State, while 
both Austria and Prussia held aloof. Whenever Austria 
threw off her supineness he came promptly to her side. 
The campaign which ensued was signally disastrous. 



A.D. 1796-1801.] ALLIANCE WITH NAPOLEON. 189 

Mack was overthrown at Ulm. Vienna opened her gates 
to the conqueror. The allies were lured by him to Aus- 
terlitz, where, in December, 1805, a hard-fought contest, 
which remained long undecided, was at last crowned by- 
one of Napoleon's most famous victories. Here the 
Tsar was under tire for the first time, and he behaved 
with commendable gallantry. His troops retreated in 
unbroken masses within the protection of their icy clime, 
while the Austrian Emperor made haste to conclude the- 
humiliating peace of Pressburg. 

Alliance with Napoleon. — The year 1806 saw another 
nation overcome by the French assailant. The flight of 
the imperial eagles was now directed against Prussia. 
It was rapid and irresistible. The double conflict at 
Anerstadt and Jena laid the country of Frederick the 
Great at the feet of one who had studied Frederick's 
tactics to greater purpose than his successors. Here 
again Russia stood forward as an ally of the vanquished, 
Her conduct was not wholly disinterested, for Napoleon 
had employed Kosciusko to rouse the Poles, while he had 
also detached Turkey from the leasfue against him, and 
was using her to cripple the powers of the Tsar. She 
exerted herself to such purpose that Napoleon resolved 
to bring her to a reckoning. The task, however, proved 
more difficult than he had bargained for. At Pultusk, 
at Eylau, at Friedland, the Russians fought so well that 
the results of these engagements were dubious. Both 
sides suffered very severely, and were rendered anxious 
for peace. This desire brought about the interview 
and treaty of Tilsit. A vast raft was floated on the 
Niemen ; the two armies were drawn up on each side of 
the river; and, in a pavilion erected on the raft, the Em- 
perors made their bargain. Its exact nature has never 
been authentically divulged, though all the information 
available concurs in pointing to an arrangement by which 
Russia was to acquire all Turkey, except Constantinople 
and the province of Roumelia, while France was to. help 
herself to Spain and Egypt. The plan was not lost sight 
of for a long while, though nothing came of it. The 



190 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII 

immediate results were, that Russia did not give up her 
Danubian provinces, as Napoleon had promised to Turkey- 
she would be forced to do ; and that, instead of Poland 
being revived, the domination of Russia was confirmed, 
and a slice of territory was added to her portion from 
that which was allotted to Prussia in 1772. 

Another Change of Policy. — This change of sides on 
the part of the Tsar was followed by swift retribution. 
Russian trade by sea was annihilated by the vigilance 
of British cruisers ; the gates of the Baltic were closed by 
a British fleet ; a Russian squadron which had been sent 
to the Tagus was captured ; and ere long Alexander dis- 
covered that Napoleonic pledges were not altogether 
trustworthy, any more than Napoleonic policy was alto- 
gether wise. Prussia had given her aid to carry out the 
Berlin decrees, those famous edicts by which it was 
sought to close every continental market against British 
goods ; but the stroke thus directed against the sellers of 
Britain told with equal effect upon the buyers of Europe. 
Great discontent was excited throughout Russia, and 
an extensive smuggling trade, carried on through the 
European provinces of Turkey, sprang up, although the 
two countries were still at war. In December, 1810, 
Alexander promulgated an ukase opening the ports to 
British produce, provided it did not come direct from 
Britain. The French ambassador complained. His 
remonstrances were disregarded. Retorts were made as 
to French violations of the engagement made at Tilsit. 
Unsettled relations subsisted all through the year 1811, 
and when, in the spring of next year, Napoleon seized 
Swedish ships and marched an army upon Swedish Pome- 
rania, Bernadotte appealed to the northern autocrat, who 
promised to stand by him. Napoleon was furious. He 
decided at once that Russia should be crushed as well 
as her ally. 

Russia Invaded. — From Dresden, where he was enter- 
taining the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and 
a crowd of minor vassal sovereigns, treating them to grand 
reviews by day and Talma's acting at night, Napoleon 



A.D. 1796-1801.] RUSSIA INVADED. 191 

issued orders for the assemblage of a larger army than 
had met in Europe since the days of the crusades. Austria 
furnished 30,000 troops, Prussia 20,000, Italy 20,000, 
the Confederation of the Rhine 80,000, and France no 
fewer than 270,000. It was after midsummer ere these 
immense masses crossed the Niemen into Lithuania, then 
the westernmost province of Russia. The troops of the 
Tsar retired, carrying off every truss of hay and sack of 
grain. Long before the invaders reached Smolensk they 
were sorely bestead through lack of food. Yet, though 
wasted by sickness, the stragglers that dropped off from 
fatigue being speared by Cossacks, while the garrisons 
that were left on their road reduced their strength by 
nearly one half, they still persevered. Disease was in 
their midst, famine was left behind, and in front the 
whole population moved away, the light of burning vil- 
lages being left to mark their path. At last Moscow was 
reached. Then the battle of Borodino was fought, ten 
thousand Frenchmen being left dead on the field. The 
ancient capital of the Tsars was entered on the 15th of Sep- 
tember, but was found deserted by every one but beggars 
and convicts. From the palace of the Kremlin it was 
announced that the grand army would winter in the city. 
Next night the place was in flames, mysteriously kindled, 
which could not be subdued till four-fifths of its dwellings 
had been destroyed. The conflagration moved Napoleon 
deeply. At St. Helena he referred to it as "the spectacle 
of a sea and billows of fire, a sky and clouds of flame; 
mountains of red rolling flames, like immense waves of 
the sea alternately bursting forth and elevating themselves 
to skies of fire, and then sinking into the ocean of flame 
below. Oh, it was the most grand, the most sublime, 
the most terrific sight the world ever beheld ! " A month 
later the invaders started on that retreat, the appallingly 
tragic incidents of which are unmatched in modern annals, 
perhaps in the whole history of war. From Moscow to 
Smolensk, from Smolensk to Wilna — for the now victori- 
ous Russians forced the fugitives to take the road thev had 
traversed- « the frozen land was thickly strewn with dead 



192 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. Till. 

and dying men, who were buried where they lay beneath 
the ever-falling snow, while crowds of mounted Cossacks 
speared every straggler and broke up every bivouac. 
Abandoning them to their fate, the guilty cause of all 
hied swiftly on to Paris, anguish gnawing at his heart, 
his intellect reeling on its throne. There was drawn 
from him the sorrowful confession that, except the Im- 
perial Guard, he had no longer an army. 

The Fall of Napoleon. — For the means of improving 
the victory which the elements had given him, Alexander 
was much indebted to the diplomacy of Britain. At 
her instigation an advantageous peace had been concluded 
with Turkey, one article of which contained on the part 
of the Turks a recognition of Servia as a quasi-indepen- 
dent State. Thus a large force was liberated at the 
right moment, and in the best position for hanging with 
fatal effect upon the skirts of the invaders, till " the 
grand army " which had been the terror of Europe 
became a feeble and disorganised remnant. Alexander 
offered to stop his pursuit at the Vistula, if Napoleon 
would give up all his conquests beyond the Elbe. The 
proposal was scouted ; and then the Tsar, meeting the 
Prussian monarch at Kalisch, formed a league with 
him for the liberation of Germany, to which in due 
time Austria acceded. Meanwhile Napoleon harangued, 
decreed, and enforced, recalled his veterans from Spain, 
turned his militia into regular soldiers, insisted upon new 
conscriptions, and once more found himself in command 
of three hundred and fifty thousand men, though a large 
proportion of them were raw levies. The campaign of 
Dresden was organised with the same genius that planned 
those of Marengo and Austerlitz. For a moment the 
star of victory appeared to gleam upon him once again. 
The victories of Lutzen and Bautzen, gained on May the 
2nd, and May the 21st, 1813, brought him back Leipsic 
and Dresden, while a cannon ball removed his old rival 
Moreau, and at the same time imperilled the life of the 
Tsar. But his marshals were badly beaten, and he was 
forced upon that false strategy which enabled the allies 



&.D. 1796-1801.] THE CONGRESS OP VIENNA, 193 

to shut him up in th< basin of the Elbe, where his young 
legions melted away in the Saxon autumn almost as 
quickly as their veteran predecessors in the Russian 
winter. On October 16th and 18th there came the two 
days' fight at Leipsic, in which they were vanquished, 
followed by his flight to Paris, which was seething with 
discontent. He was surrounded on all sides. British 
ships watched every mile of coast; the Russians and 
Prussians were advancing f "om the north and east ; the 
Austrians were marching through Switzerland; Wel- 
lington was coming up from the south. Still the Napo- 
leonic spell was powerful. Peace was again offered by 
Alexander, on the condition now that France should 
retire within her ancient limits : and again it was refused. 
For two months the adversaries who were pressing upon 
Paris were kept at bay, though their weight was so over- 
whelming that a prolonged resistance was impossible. 
Buonaparte tried to outwit his northern foes by getting 
behind them. His idea was, that if he could cut them off 
from the Rhine he would arrest their march upon Paris. 
The scheme was discovered. A Russian force of 10,000 
men was left to deceive him, while the rest of the allied 
strength pushed on. Marmont was driven back ; Paris 
sui rendered; and on the 31 so of March the Tsar and 
Frederick William entered the city. Two months later, 
Napoleon having abdicated and been sent to Elba, the 
first Peace of Paris was concluded, pending the assem- 
blage of a Congress appointed to meet at Vienna in the 
autumn. 

The Congress of Vienna. — At the appointed time and 
place the potentates and plenipotentiaries, most of whom 
had spent the summer in Britain, met in the Austrian 
capital. The Tsar attended, as did the Emperor ol 
Austria, the Kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and 
Wurtemberg, and the representative of every European 
Power except Turkey. Talleyrand came, claiming admis- 
sion on behalf of France, getting his claim allowed, and 
forthwith proceeding most artfully to sow dissension. 
Rusjja asked , as her reward, for the whole of Poland ; 

N 



194 HISTOBT OP KUS8TA. [CHAP. YI1L 

Prussia for the annexation of Saxony. Lord Castlereagh, 
the British representative, first assented and then refused. 
Quarrels ran high, when the tidings that Buonaparte had 
escaped from Elba, and was gathering round him the 
military strength of France, compelled their abatement. 
A new coalition was formed, the battle of Waterloo was 
fought, the second treaty of Paris was signed, and the 
diplomatists resumed their work in a more accommodat- 
ing temper. Russia had her Turkish acquisitions recog- 
nised; she gained Finland, to compensate Sweden for 
which she was confirmed in the possession of Norway; 
while, as regards Poland, a bit of Warsaw was given to 
Prussia ; another bit to Austria ; the city of Cracow, 
with a small surrounding territory, was created a republic; 
and all the rest was raised into what was called the 
kingdom of Poland, which was endowed with a parlia- 
mentary government, liberty of the press, a national 
army, the restored use of the national language, and was 
then placed under Russian sovereignty. By this odd 
contrivance did the Congress try to conciliate western 
scruples and to gratify Russian ambition. 

The Holy Alliance. — When the territorial rearrange- 
ments were settled, the Tsar brought forward a project 
of his own. He produced a paper in the form of a con- 
tract, which he wished his fellow-monarchs to sign. It 
ran in these terms : " Conformably to the words of Holy 
Scripture, which command all men to consider each other 
as brethren, the contracting monarchs will remain united 
by the bonds of a true and indissoluble fraternity, and, 
considering each other as fellow-countrymen, they will, 
on all occasions and in all places, lend each other aid and 
assistance ; and, regarding themselves towards their sub- 
jects and armies as fathers of families, they will lead 
them in the same spirit of fraternity, to protect religion, 
peace, and justice." The King of Prussia signed the 
document off-hand, much to the gratification of its author; 
the Emperor of Austria took time to consult both his 
confessor and his chancellor, the latter of whom, Prince 
Motteraicb, relieved his mind by the assurance that it 



A.D. 1796-1801.] THE HOLT ALLIANCE. 195 

was "pure verbiage;" and Lord Castlereagh, on behalf 
of Britain, quietly evaded the proposal. On Christmas 
day, 1815, the Tsar issued a manifesto in his own name 
and that of his two allies, wherein they declared "their 
fixed resolution in the administration of their respective 
States, and in their political relations with every other 
government to take for their guide the precepts of the 
holy religion of our Saviour, the precepts of justice, 
Christian charity, and peace, which, fai from being appli- 
cable only to private concerns, must have an immediate 
influence on the councils of princes, and guide all their 
steps, as being the only means of consolidating human 
institutions and remedying their imperfections." This 
was the origin of " the Holy Alliance." Alexander was 
sincere in desiring something more than a political 
paction. Ever since the burning of Moscow he had 
cherished serious thoughts about religion. He was now 
under the influence of Madam Krudener, a clever woman, 
who, from being the brilliant leader of a Parisian salon, 
had become the devotee of a mystic and high-wrought 
pietism. The Tsar and she had long communings and 
Bible-readings. She accompanied him to Paris and to 
Vienna, If he had any adviser in this business, she filled 
that place. Their friendship did not endure; but the 
influence of her teachings never passed away from his 
mind, and till his death he entertained a vivid sense of 
the personal obligation he had contracted by this engage- 
ment, which suited well with his exalted notions of " the 
divine right" by which he reigned. 

The Closing Years of Alexander. — These ideas told 
powerfully upon his internal government as well as on 
his relations with other Powers. At first he gave a 
sedulous attention to domestic affairs. He addressed 
himself with much wisdom and energy to various import- 
ant reforms. One master-evil, however, he lacked courage 
to grapple with. Every department of administration 
was corrupt. The fact was well know^n ; but the Tsar 
tx.iank from dealing with it, contenting himself with a 
Litter jest in reference to the most audacious public rob > 



196 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. Till. 

beries. He remarked of some highly-placed men : "If 
they knew where to warehouse them, they would purloin 
my line-of-battle ships ; if they could do it without 
waking me, they would steal my teeth as I slept." As 
the Napoleonic conflict went on, the consideration he 
gained led him to devote his regards more and more to 
foreign affairs, in relation to which he came under the 
ascendancy of Metternich. Home matters he left to be 
managed almost entirely by an all-powerful favourite. 
He had still a speculative attachment to liberal ideas, 
and dreamt for a while of conceding, as he saw meet, 
popular immunities; but he was angered and alarmed 
by the way in which the Poles strove to work the con- 
stitution they had obtained, persisting that it should be 
put to use, instead of treating it as a thing only for show. 
His naturally benevolent temper still prompted him to 
an occasional interference for some worthy object, but 
his conduct was as capricious as the conduct of despots 
usually is. The liberal revolt over all Europe which 
followed the settlement of Vienna he deemed unwarrant- 
able and dangerous ; and he went thoroughly along with 
the action of those congresses held from time to time by 
which the advisers of those who signed the Holy Alliance 
devised a system of repression. This rather tied his 
hands during the Greek war of independence, which 
Russian agents joined in suggesting and maintaining, and 
he himself would have liked to aid. In the end of 1823, 
when the third campaign had closed, he addressed an 
earnest memorandum to his allies in the interests of 
peace. He proposed that the country should be divided 
into three principalities, after the pattern of Moldavia 
and Wallachia, each being under the suzerainty of the 
Porte, to whom a certain tribute should be due, but 
otherwise independent. The proposal ran counter to all 
the ideas of Metternich, who vehemently opposed it, and 
was able to tell its author that he ought to look at home, 
for a conspiracy against himself was spreading fast. 

This was true. The revolutionary spirit had invaded 
Russia. Secret societies formed in the army had obtained 



A.D. 1796-1801.] ACCESSION OF NICHOLAS. 19* 

the countenance of many nobles, and drew support from 
large numbers of the lower orders. The conspirators 
sought to overturn the Government and change the 
dynasty. How much of the truth came to Alexander's 
knowledge is uncertain. He certainly learned enough 
to cause him much uneasiness. For some time before he 
had shown himself weary and disquieted. He had become 
exceedingly deaf. His children were all dead. His wife 
was very ill. Before going south with her to Taganrog 
in the winter of 1825, he had recurred to arrangements 
planned some years previously for a renunciation of the 
throne on behalf of his younger brother. Had he come 
back they would in all likelihood have been carried 
through, but in December he died. The event was unex- 
pected, and naturally suspicions of foul play arose. They 
had no justification. 

The Accession of Nicholas. — When the news reached 
St. Petersburg a little comedy was enacted, the motive 
for which remains incomprehensible. The Grand Duke 
Constantine was the next heir to the throne. The pro- 
spect of his accession was viewed with universal dread. 
Unlike his brothers, who were singularly handsome men, 
he was so ill-favoured as to be repulsive. The mean 
appearance of his father and of his grandfather was 
reproduced in him with added traits of ferocity. His 
aspect did not belie his disposition, which was petulant 
and vindictive in an extraordinary degree. In his fre- 
quent moods of ungovernable temper, his Calmuck 
physiognomy became so forbidding that people quailed 
before him as before an ogre or a ghoul. The only 
human being he ever inspired with affection or trust was 
his morganatic wife, a Polish lady. To her he was 
devotedly attached, and he did her bidding with spaniel- 
like docility. At her instigation he had consented to 
waive his right to the throne, and a writing to this effect, 
duly ratified, was left by Alexander in a sealed packet 
addressed to the senate, with instructions that in the 
event of his death it should be opened before any business 
was transacted. Nicholas was privy to this abdication, 



198 HISTOBY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIM. 

nevertheless he chose to affect ignorance of it, was con- 
spicuously eager to take the oath of allegiance to the 
legitimate heir, and insisted on having him proclaimed 
even after the document had been produced. Great con- 
fusion was likely to ensue. It was avoided by the action 
of Constantine, who forwarded a paper intimating that in 
no circumstances would he recall his renunciation. There- 
upon Nicholas no longer hesitated. 

After the comedy there came sundry exciting incidents 
of another sort. The conspiracy — or, at least, one of the 
conspiracies — of which Alexander had been warned, 
burst forth. Its leader was Conrad Byclieff, a man of 
many fine qualities, with an ardent devotion to demo- 
cratic ideas. Nicholas began his reign on the 24th of 
December. Next day the conspirators met at Ryclieff's 
house to concert their final measures. The Governor- 
General of St. Petersburg, a gallant soldier, known as the 
Murat of the Hussian army, and a great friend to the 
new Tsar, was informed of the assembly, but he made 
light of the warning. " Bah," quoth he, " they are a set 
of dreamers met most likely to hear bad verses." Next 
day, as he rode forth with his sovereign, he was shot by 
one of his own soldiers. Sympathy with the insurgents 
was not so strong among the troops as the leaders of the 
revolt had been led to believe ; yet their proceedings 
created much alarm, and masses of the populace took 
part with them. The Tsar behaved with courage and 
consideration. He rallied those of the troops who were 
faithful. Before ordering them to act he caused appeals 
to be addressed to the patriotism and the religion of the 
mutineers; but they were drowned amid scoffs, and 
jeers, and the roll of drums. Then a cavalry regiment 
charged upon the throng, but it was not dispersed by 
this onset. Finally, cannon were brought forward, and 
by sundry rounds from them, the Senate-house Square, 
where the muster had been made, was swept clear. The 
corpses of those who fell were thrust into the Neva 
through holes in the ice. Many prisoners were made, 
the majority of whom were treated with leniency. Only 



A.D. 1796-1801.] CHARACTER OF THE NEW TSAR. 199 

the leaders of the conspiracy were executed. Among 
them was RycliefF, who was allowed, through the 
awkwardness of the hangman, to fall to the ground 
uninjured. On being brought back to the platform he 
exclaimed, " What a country this is, where they know 
not how to rule or to plot, to judge or to hang ! " 

Character of the New Tsar. — Nicholas was a man of 
narrower mind than his deceased brother, but of more 
imperious will. Notwithstanding the mingled firmness 
and clemency with which he met the crisis that signalised 
his accession, it startled him in a manner, the effects of 
which never passed away. The noise of the artillery so 
-frightened his wife, a daughter of the heroic Queen 
Louise of Prussia, that she contracted a nervous twitch- 
ing of the face which endured through life. In her 
husband's case, there was produced an unhappy mental 
impression which lasted as long. An abiding sense of 
insecurity possessed him. He knew no way to overcome 
the hazards he dreaded, save that of stern repression. To 
this task he gave himself with a vigour that was abso- 
lutely merciless. It would be untrue to say that he did 
not succeed surprisingly, but his success was won by the 
infliction of a tyranny more grinding and punctilious 
than can well be conceived. Especially difficult is it to 
imagine the modes by which his tyranny was so tempered 
as to be rendered anywise tolerable. In his domestic 
circle, and among his friends, he showed as a man of 
kindly nature. In all his personal tastes and habits he 
was very simple, though he had an exalted idea of what 
his station demanded, and kept up the tradition of splen- 
dour in his court to a pitch that almost vied with the 
magnificence in which his grandmother delighted. That 
it was his earnest wish and endeavour to benefit his 
country cannot be doubted ; only he could never be 
brought to see that his methods were false and impossible. 
He deemed it his mission to uphold the principles of 
order and faith in a world that seemed to him every day 
becoming more prone to revolution and unbelief; and, 
with such an idea of duty, Me had little choice of means. 



SCO HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII. 

His hatred of liberalism passed into a species of mania. 
The severities by which he sought to stamp it out were 
most fell and unrelenting. His activity grew at last to 
mere restlessness. He became inconceivably self-sufficient 
and obstinate. Whatever he willed should be done, it 
behoved to be accomplished at any cost. When the 
railway line between St. Petersburg and Moscow was 
planned, there arose a difference as to the proper route, 
which was referred to him. He took a ruler and drew a 
straight line between the two cities, saying the railway 
should be constructed so. Thus it was constructed, 
bringing a fortune to the Yankee contractor, but avoiding 
cities, running through wastes, and entailing a permanent 
burden on the State. The temper which prompted this 
performance came to have an unchecked sway in every 
department of affairs. Such things prejudiced outside 
opinion, which never had long to wait for some fresh 
fillip to its dislike. Yet, by the mass of his intelligent 
subjects, he was regarded with a curious blending of 
admiration and awe. 

War with Turkey — The Peace of Adrianople. — 
Foreign wars have always been a favourite method with 
despotic rulers for diverting attention from home troubles. 
Count von Moltke, the German soldier, ascribes to this 
motive the origin of a Russo-Turkish war which was 
waged in 1828-9. Almost immediately after the acces- 
sion of Nicholas, as also after Sultan Mahmud had 
disbanded the Janissaries, certain claims were pressed 
upon Turkey which she was in no position to resist. 
They consisted in the surrender of some Asiatic fortresses 
which were to have been given up under the treaty of 
Bucharest, in the restoration to the Moldo- Walla chians 
of privileges they were said to have forfeited by the 
revolt of 1821, and in the cession of complete independ- 
ence to Servia. All this was granted by the treaty of 
Akerman in 1826, which renewed the conventions of 
Bucharest and Kanairdji, and gav 7 e special emphasis to 
the Russian right of interference on behalf of members 
belonging to the Greek church in the Ottoman dominions* 



A.D. 1796 1801.] WAR WITH TURKEY. 201 

This right was soon stretched so as to justify interven- 
tion on behalf of some Armenian Christians at Constan- 
tinople, who were subjected to pillage in the form of 
exorbitant taxation. Complaint was likewise made that 
Turkey had tried to cause a revolution in the Caucasus, 
and had closed the Bosphorus against Russian ships. A 
tiery rejoinder was given to these charges in a proclama- 
tion alleging that for sixty years Russia had incessantly 
been creating pretexts for war, that she had encouraged 
the Greek insurgents, and that by her conduct in the 
principalities she had violated both the treaties of 
Bucharest and Akerman, which the Sultan now repudi- 
ated. " Her final aim," said the proclamation, " is 
nothing less than to destroy Islam itself. We have to 
fight, not for a province, nor for a boundary, but for our 
faith. Let every true follower of the prophet obey this 
call to arms." It was obeyed with much enthusiasm, 
but the consequences were unfortunate. The Turks 
fought with extraordinary spirit, but they were out- 
numbered and out-generalled. The war was carried on 
simultaneously in Asia and in Europe. The Russian 
army of the Danube numbered a hundred thousand men. 
It advanced to that river without opposition. There, 
the fortress of Ibraila detained one division of it more 
than a month. When reunited, an advance was made 
upon Schumla and Varna. Schumla resisted successfully, 
but Varna was taken, partly by aid of a fleet, containing 
sixteen ships of the line, under Admiral Greig, partly by 
the treachery of Yussuf Pasha, the second in command. 
An attempt was then made upon Silistria, which failed, 
the invaders retiring for the winter. Moltke, setting 
their sacrifices against their successes, found it hard to 
say whether they had won or lost. The second campaign 
proved decisive. 

Marshal Diebitsch was entrusted with the supreme 
command, unfettered by home instructions. He defeated 
the Turks in a we/1-planned scheme for opening a road to 
the recapture of Varna and the relief of Silistria. Then, 
by a stroke of Napoleonic strategy, while he made a 



202 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII. 

feint against Schuinla which caused such alarm as to 
induce many of "the troops employed in the Balkan passes 
to be summoned in order to aid in its defence, he pene- 
trated one of the valleys which run through that moun- 
tain-range, and came out with twenty thousand men on 
its southern side, advancing rapidly upon Adrianople. 
The panic thus excited was extreme. It enabled him to 
dictate a peace. Had his real circumstances been known, 
he would never have obtained the terms given him. The 
truth is, he made a narrow escape from destruction. A 
fourth of his troops were speedily in hospital, victims of 
the plague. He might easily have been overwhelmed. 
But the prestige of a success which was deemed irresis- 
tible attached to him. The representatives of Britain 
and Austria, as the friends of Turkey, pressed the 
necessity of an agreement, in order to avoid destruction. 
The Sultan was very unwilling ; but in the end he 
ratified a compact, consenting that Russia should guarantee 
the separate administration of Moldavia and Wallachia, 
that the stipulations of Akerman should be renewed in 
regard to Servia, that the indapendence of Greece, as 
defined by the treaty of London, should be recognised, 
and that a large pecuniary indemnity should be paid. 
Besides this, the ] rotectorate of Russia over the Greek 
church was renewed, the whole eastern coast of the Black 
Sea was ceded to her, and she acquired a right to navigate 
the Straits, as well as command over the mouths of the 
mouths of the Danube, Some compensation was obtained 
on the Asiatic side. There, throughout his two cam- 
paigns, Paskewitch, who in 1827 had distinguished him- 
self in a Russo-Persian war, had pursued a steady and 
brilliant career of success. Great part of his conquests 
was restored, however, the idea being to obtain a well- 
defined frontier for those provinces of the Caucasus which 
Russia intimated she had annexed in perpetuity. 

Insurrection in Poland. — No sooner had this settle- 
ment been concluded than work was found iov Prince 
Zabalkansky — that is, the Balkan-passer — as Z^iebitsch 
was now called, upon the plains of Poland. A actional 



A.D. 1796-1832.] RUSSIA AHD TURKEY Iff ALLIANCE. 203 

rising took place in 1830. Some students had drunk the 
memory of Kosciusko in one of their clubs. The incident 
came to the ears of the Grand Duke Constantine, who 
was the governor. He had the lads severely flogged. 
Out of this, riots ensued in which the authorities were 
worsted. The Grand Duke was respectfully conveyed to 
the frontier, while a deputation was sent to St. Peters- 
burg to explain the origin of the revolt, and to suppli- 
cate the concession of those constitutional guarantees 
which had been repeatedly promised. Of course the 
request was spurned. Absolute submission was de- 
manded. Then resistance was resolved upon. A levee 
en masse of the people took place, and for many glorious 
months the Russian masses were kept at bay. The 
Balkan-passer died suddenly in June, 1831, some say of 
cholera, some of poison, some of chagrin. A fortnight 
later Constantine was removed with a like mysterious 
suddenness. Prince Paskewitch was now entrusted with 
the task of crushing the insurrection. He accomplished 
it by the help of Austria and Prussia, while the other 
Powers who had subscribed the treaty of Vienna looked 
on idly impotent. In September Warsaw was taken. 
Soon after the Tsar proclaimed that " order reigned " 
there. The chiefs of the revolt were sent to Siberia. 
Noble ladies were forcibly married to common soldiers. 
The common people were drafted into regiments serving 
in distant parts, or were sent as serfs to cultivate estates 
that were not well-stocked with labourers. The use of 
the national language was forbidden. The constitution 
was formally abrogated, and in July, 1832, Poland was 
declared an integral part of the Kussian empire. Nicholas 
thus created a bridge for the entrance into his empire of 
the democratic ideas he dreaded. At the same time 
thousands of Poles scattered themselves over all lands, 
becoming, wherever they went, the missionaries of re- 
volution. 

Russia and Turkey in Alliance. — A little later, in 
1833, Russia unexpectedly appeared as the friend and 
protector of Turkey. Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, 



204 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII. 

had gradually made himself almost independent of the 
Porte. His increasing power was viewed with great 
jealousy at Constantinople. When he was checked ha 
arrogated all the rights of an independent sovereign, 
made war against his fellow-pasha of Damascus, con- 
quered Syria, and threatened to overturn the Ottoman 
throne. At this juncture the Tsar offered to his friend 
and brother the Sultan any amount of force, by sea or 
land, that might be necessary to sustain him. Outside 
Turkey the proffer excited much suspicion and remon- 
strance. Britain and France combined in opposing 
the movement. For a time the negotiations consequent 
on it were delayed, but new alarms soon terrified the 
Sultan into a request that it should be carried through. 
The supplication was promptly complied with. A Russian 
fleet appeared in the Bosphorus. A Russian army was 
stationed in Constantinople. They went under the stipu- 
lation that when peace was restored they should return. 
There was great scepticism in many quarters as to 
whether their mission was to make peace or to hinder it, 
and the idea was very generally entertained that in no 
case would they go back. Both notions were speedily 
falsified. The Russian interference brought the rebellious 
Pasha to a speedy pause. No sooner had an arrangement 
been concluded than the Russian troops, who had been 
feted, feasted, and decorated at a great rate, took their 
departure. The explanation was that, while they were 
present, the secret treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi had been 
negotiated. By this instrument Russia bound herself to 
help Turkey whenever need should arise, in consideration 
of a pledge that Turkey should close the Straits of the 
Dardanelles against the ships of all other nations, when- 
ever called upon to do so by her ally. 

Complications with the Western Powers. — This 
stipulation was very distasteful to Britain and France, 
who combined in order to render it null. Nevertheless, 
it was not formally repealed till eight years afterwards. 
Fresh troubles then arose betwixt the Sultan and Me« 
hemet. Syria was again the subject of dispute and the field 



A.D. 1833-1S48.] EGYPTIAN DIFFICULTIES. 205 

of conflict. The Sultan deposed his rebellious vassal. 
Mehemet responded in a style that made it likely he would 
annihilate his master, whose numerous innovations had 
provoked the rage and mistrust of all strict Moham- 
medans, without bringing to the country the regenera- 
tion he sought. The five great Powers — Britain, France, 
Russia, Austria, Prussia — intervened to bring about an 
arrangement. M. Thiers, then premier of France, began 
this work; but, as it proceeded, differences of opinion 
sprang up betwixt him and Lord Palmerston, the British 
foreign minister, and it was concluded without French 
participation, in a manner contrary to French wishes. 
Mehemet was coerced into submission, though his heredi- 
tary title to the government of Egypt was recognised. 
At the same time the treaty of TJnkiar-Skelessi was 
rescinded. Throughout these proceedings the Tsar acted 
heartily with Britain. During the next six years, when 
her relations with France were frequently strained to a 
violent degree, he made ostentatious professions of his 
sympathy with her. In 1844, while one of these minor 
quarrels was at its height, he paid a visit to the Queen 
at Windsor, which was universally credited with a poli- 
tical significance. The tales current as to his domestic 
administration prevented him from acquiring any great 
popularity among the British people, while the course of 
events abroad soon made him the object of an extreme 
dislike. 

In 1846 he concurred in extinguishing the republic of 
Cracow, the last fragment of independent Poland, its 
territory being handed over to Austria, though Lord 
Palmerston, who, after half-a-dozen years' exclusion, was 
again back at the British Foreign Office, protested against 
the act. The protest was sustained by both Houses of 
Parliament; and a proposal by Mr. Joseph Hume, to 
withhold an annual payment to Russia in connection 
with a Dutch loan, which was guaranteed by the same 
treaty which set up Cracow, received a large measure of 
support. The revolutionary year, 1848, excited Nicholas 
to much apprehension and activity, his principal exploits 



206 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII, 

being to help the young "Emperor of Austria to put down 
a rising of the Hungarians, which was done in a perfidi- 
ous and cruel fashion, and then to quarrel with Turkey 
for the asylum she gave to the beaten patriots — a quarrel 
which led to a diplomatic rupture between the two 
countries, and threatened, for the best part of a year, to 
embroil Great Britain, who took the Turkish side with 
ardour. In 1850, despite his regard for his brother-in- 
law, the Prussian King, he persuaded him, or rather 
compelled him, to forego the headship of Germany, with 
an imperial title, then within his grasp, and forced back 
the rising Prussian state upon a species of vassalage to 
the house of Hapsburg. In 1852 he was again at vari- 
ance with Turkey. She meditated the subjugation of 
Montenegro. Austria disliked the project. The Tsar, 
seemingly unable to forget the spirit so favourable to 
Russia often displayed by the inhabitants of the Black 
Mountain, joined in energetic remonstrances against it. 
The Western Powers could not support a scheme for 
reducing a self-governed community to the rank of 
tribute-paying ray ah s. So Turkey was obliged to give 
in; but while the difficulties connected with this matter 
were in process of adjustment, the causes that led up to 
the Crimean war were growing to a head. 

The Crimean War — Its Origin. — Louis Napoleon was 
the author of that great conflict. From being President 
of the French Republic he had got himself recognised as 
the third Emperor of his line. It was natural, perhaps 
it was essential for him, that he should find means to 
engage and dazzle the attention of France. Without doing 
him any injustice, it may be assumed that he had can- 
vassed various expedients for that end. The expedient 
chosen was undoubtedly felicitous. To please the Romish 
church, the strength of which in France had been dis- 
closed in a manner that surprised him; to incense Russia; 
to attract Britain to his side as an ally ; and so not only 
to turn away regard from domestic questions, but to 
establish a position among the confraternity of sovereigns — 
all this he had the wit to accomplish by one stroke. The 



A.D. 1852-1854.] THE CRIMEAN WAR — ITS ORIGIN, 207 

weapon he used was an old dispute between the Latin 
and Greek churches regarding the custody of certain 
so-called " holy places " in Palestine. It goes back to 
the time of the Crusades. A firman granted by Mahmoud 
I. in 1740, which restored to the Latins an authority 
which the Greeks were said to have usurped, was pre- 
sented, and its re-issue asked for. This document was 
doubly null. It was obsolete, for there is no proof that 
it ever was acted upon. It had been superseded, for since 
its date the Greeks had received repeated confirmations of 
the rights they were accustomed to exercise. At first 
little heed was given to the demand preferred in respect 
of it, but the French ambassador took care that its im- 
portance should be magnified. He insisted on an imme- 
diate compliance ; and when delays were interposed, 
spoke loftily about sending a French army to occupy 
Jerusalem, as a method of securing what he wished. As 
if to show this was no empty menace, a French fleet 
appeared before Tripoli with a threat of bombardment if 
two deserters from Algiers, who had turned Moslems, 
were not at once sent back. The effect was that the 
vigilance and pride of Russia were aroused. She con- 
ceived that she must be humiliated if France was to be 
gratified. The Sultan and his advisers saw the dilemma. 
They took the worst way out of it. First they procras- 
tinated ; then they prevaricated. Russia was confiden- 
tially assured that the status quo would be maintained. 
France was at the same time told she would get what she 
wished. This secret pledge M. de Lavalette, her ambas- 
sador, made haste to proclaim in token of his success. 
He was recalled in triumph for promotion. Hardly had 
he left Constantinople when Prince Menschikoff arrived 
as a special envoy from St. Petersburg, charged with a 
mission to undo his work. 

The Tsar had strong ideas as respects both France and 
Turkey. The French revolution of 1848 he detested 
with an abhorrence even more violent than his abhorrence 
of its predecessor ir. 1830 ; and the contempt with which 
he had also regarded Louis Philippe, the citizen-king, 



208 HISTORY Or RUSSIA. [chap. ttlL 

was intensified in its application to the new Emperor. 
As for Turkey, it was his firm conviction that no power 
could arrest her decline or avert her destruction. Twenty- 
years before he had stated as much to Prince Metternich, 
describing the country under the figure of " a sick man," 
who might at any moment slip away, and for whose dis- 
solution it were well to be prepared. Ten years before he 
had discussed the same subject in London with the Duke 
of Wellington, Lord Aberdeen, and Sir It. Peel, insist- 
ing upon the probability of a speedy collapse, and the 
wisdom of being prepared in such an event to pursue a 
common policy. He now reverted to these ideas in his 
intercourse with Sir George Hamilton Seymour, the 
British ambassador at St. Petersburg. " We have on 
our hands," quoth he to Sir George in the early part of 
1853, "a sick man, a very sick man, who may suddenly 
die, a.nd I put it to you whether it is not better to be 
provided beforehand than to incur the chaos, confusion, 
and certainty of an European war, if this should occur 
unexpectedly." The danger he subsequently described 
as threefold, arguing that an external war might precipi- 
tate an overthrow, or that it might be caused by a Chris- 
tian rising, or be brought about by the feud between the 
old fanatical Mussulman party and the party of what he 
called the new and superficial French reforms. The 
arrangements he desired were lightly sketched. He 
repudiated any wish to obtain Constantinople, saying he 
had not inherited the dreams and visions of Catherine in 
that respect — a style of remark which was habitual with 
him ; but he added that he would not let Britain, nor 
any other great state, have it. Servia and Bulgaria might 
be constituted, he thought, independent states, under his 
protection, after the pattern of the Danubian Principa- 
lities, while he saw no reason why Britain should not 
have Egypt and Crete. All this Sir George was asked 
to lay before the British ministry for their consideration, 
with the remark that he wished for no treaty nor proto- 
col, but only for a general undeistanding, as between 
gentlemen. In reply to the representation, Lord John 



A.D. 1853-1854] THE CRIMEAN WAR. 209 

Russell, then at the Foreign Office, wrote that no crisia 
had arisen to render such arrangements requisite ; that 
they were wholly without precedent; that, as they would 
soon become matters of common knowledge, the enemies 
of Turkey would be stimulated to activity by the assur- 
ance of success, so that thus " there would be produced 
and strengthened the very anarchy which is feared, and 
the foresight of the friends of the patient would be the 
cause of his death." At the same time, his lordship inti- 
mated that the British had no wish to hold Constan- 
tinople, and would never think of entering into any 
engagements as to the future of Turkey unknown to 
Russia. With this the Tsar was greatly pleased, so far as 
it went. In a memorandum drawn by himself, under 
date July, 1853, he equally renounced any desire to hold 
the Turkish capital, and promised to do nothing in the 
event of a Turkish collapse without consulting Britain. 
He added that now " he regards with less apprehension 
the catastrophe he still desires to prevent and avert, as 
much as it shall depend on him to do so." 

By this time affairs at Constantinople had become 
extremely perplexed. Prince Menschikoff had borne 
himself very haughtily. His conduct had the ill effect 
of causing his proposals to be sadly misjudged. No 
difficulty was found now in settling the trumpery quarrel 
about the holy places. The Greeks got undivided charge 
of the church at Bethlehem, and of the silver star on the 
altar of the Nativity ; nay, the Turks consented to wall 
up the harems that look out on the sanctuary of the 
Holy Sepulchre; but they refused to make the Greek 
patriarch at Constantinople irremovable, or to embody in 
definite language a recognition of that protectorate over 
Greek Christians which Russia claimed. Lord Stratford 
de Redcliffe was foremost in counselling refusal. His 
conduct w T as generally praised as tending to defeat a 
subtle scheme for establishing Russian influence. The 
mistake was pardonable in the western public, but ho 
ought to have known better. Hitherto, the right both 
tc appoint and to degrade Greek bishops had rested with 



210 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII. 

the Sultan. It was only the right to degrade it was pro- 
posed to take away. Instead of strengthening Russian 
influence, this would have weakened it. Outside Russia, 
every orthodox Greek, however willing to recognise the 
Tsar as a protector, refuses to acknowledge him as pon- 
tiff. To the patriarch of Constantinople there belongs 
hierarchal supremacy. To give him an enhanced measure 
of security was therefore to make him more independent 
of Russia. In the end this claim was withdrawn ; but 
an ultimatum was presented in the form of a " If ote," 
demanding a convention guaranteeing the maintenance 
of the ancient usage respecting " the holy places, and of 
all the rights belonging to the Greek church, including 
the Russian protectorate, as also the concession of a title 
to share in every immunity and advantage that might 
be granted to other churches." It was replied, that to 
come under such a contract was incompatible with the 
sovereign authority of the Sultan. Thereupon diplo- 
matic relations were broken off, and the question hitherto 
argued between the two disputants was carried before 
the tribunal of the great Powers. 

Appeal to the Great Powers. — Redshid Pasha, the 
new Turkish vizier, a protege of Lord Stratford's ; and 
the veteran Count Nesselrode, the Russian chancellor, 
each stated his case with consummate plausibility. The 
leading answer was returned by the French minister, 
M. Drouyn de Lhuys. Each pleading was in some 
degree partial and fallacious. The Turkish circular erred 
by hiding the fact that a precedent, for all that was asked, 
existed in the concessions made to Austria as regards the 
Roman Catholics by the treaties of Carlo witz, Belgrade, 
and Sistowa. The Russian circular erred by its conten- 
tion that the claim which Count Nesselrode rightly 
described as traditional and inevitable, a thing of facts, 
not words, was likewise covered by the treaty of 
Kanairdji, for neither that instrument, nor the treaty of 
Adrianople, could be construed with any precision as 
carrying a sense so wide. Finally, the response of the 



A.D. 1853-1854.] WARLIKE MOVEMENTS. 211 

French minister, however sound as an abstract argument, 
was vitiated by the fact that over and over again France 
had exerted such an influence as Russia claimed. Louis 
Napoleon himself, as President of the Republic, bad a 
few years before, as " Protector of the Roman Catholic 
faith in Turkey," coerced the Porte into supporting the 
strict Romanists against the Gregorians, who are the much 
larger body. But the controversy was not now to be 
settled on grounds of reason. Other influences had been 
called into play, and every week that passed gave to the 
stern arbitrament of war more and more of the severe 
aspect that belongs to the inevitable. 

Warlike Movements. — The British and French fleets 
had been advanced to Besika Bay, at the entrance to the 
Dardanelles, before Menschikofi' left Constantinople — a 
decidedly menacing step. In accordance with the inten- 
tion Nesselrode had announced, two divisions of the 
Russian army were, immediately after the ambassador 
had departed, sent across the Pruth into the Princi- 
palities, not, as it was explained, to make war, but to 
take possession of a "material guarantee." This distinc- 
tion between an armed invasion and a war was not very 
comprehensible; but Turkey was not ready to resent it, 
and the Powers joined in representing that she should 
not try. There came a brief pause of anxious uncer- 
tainty, during which a last effort was made to avert 
hostilities. Austria offered to mediate, suggesting that 
a plan which had been devised in Paris, of embodying in 
a "Note" all the points upon which the disputants were 
agreed, and leaving over those upon which they differed, 
might be accepted as the basis of a settlement. Asked 
if he would accept the proposal, the Tsar said " Yes; M 
but, instigated by Lord Stratford, the Sultan said, "No, 
not without certain changes." At the same time, upon 
the strength of a report that it was intended to massacre 
the Christians in Constantinople at the feast of "Bairam," 
the British and French ambassadors ordered up four 
vessels from their fleets into forbidden waters, in order 
"to protect their compatriots, and, in case of need, tq 



212 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIII. 

give aid to the Sultan." The movement was ludicrously 
inadequate for its professed purpose, but it served to 
complicate affairs as cleverly as if designed for that end. 
It incensed the Tsar, who was rendered more stiff than 
ever in his repugnance to any modification of the Vienna 
Note. To a renewed demand for its unconditional 
acceptance, Turkey replied by a declaration of war, dated 
the 5th of October. Omar Pasha, her commander-in- 
chief, warned Prince Glortschakoff that he must withdraw 
his troops from the Principalities. The Prince replied 
that he would evacuate as soon as the Tsar got the satis- 
faction to which he was entitled; and, three weeks later, 
Russia announced that she was reluctantly compelled to 
take up arms in order to avenge insults, and to enforce 
respect for treaties. 

Hostilities Begun. — Before this, the Turks had fired 
on a Russian flotilla sailing up the Danube. Immediately 
afterwards, the Turks crossed that river in force at four 
places. One division, 18,000 strong, advanced upon 
Oltenitza. The commander at that place had less than 
half their strength; but, deceived as to their numbers, 
he went forward to stop their march. The encounter 
took place in the most favourable circumstances for the 
Turks. They fought under cover of the guns in the for- 
tress of Turtukai, and they gained a decisive victory. It 
is supposed that, had their success been energetically fol- 
lowed up, they might have wintered at Bucharest; but 
the season was late, and Omar preferred to sit down in 
Schumla. As an offset to this defeat, the Russians were 
soon able to report three great successes in Asia Minor. 
They were followed up by a terrible blow — the destruc- 
tion of the Turkish fleet in the Euxine. Its existence 
was a great point of pride w T ith the Sultan. It consisted 
of seven frigates, three corvettes, and two steamers, which 
lay in the roadstead of Sinope under the protection of 
four coast batteries. Six Russian ships sailed right into 
the bay, silenced the batteries, destroyed the whole 
squadron, with the exception of a small steamer which 
escaped in the confusion, and bombarded the town t from 



A.D. 1854-1855.] INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 213 

which the Turkish authorities had fled. The bombard- 
ment might have been spared, though in the course of the 
war worse things were done on both sides; but the main 
portion of the exploit is now admired by naval men, as 
illustrating the critical operation of an attack with sail- 
ships on a squadron off a lee shore. It was performed 
almost within ear-shot of the British and French fleets, 
which had entered the Bosphorus some weeks before. This 
circumstance excited great chagrin in London and Paris, 
prompted a rather ridiculous outcry about treachery and 
massacre, and undoubtedly hastened the action of the 
allies. In the spring a collective Note was sent to St. 
Petersburg by the four Powers, intimating upon what 
terms the Sultan would make peace, to which the Tsar 
deigned no response. On the 12th of March a treaty of 
alliance was signed betwixt Britain, France, and Turkey; 
and, on the 28th, the two first-named Powers declared war 
against Russia, forthwith reinforcing their naval strength 
in the Black Sea, despatching troops to Gallipoli, and 
sending a fleet to the Baltic. 

Though war was declared by the western powers, they 
were not ready for its prosecution. The summer passed 
while almost nothing was done. The Baltic fleets bom- 
barded and destroyed the petty town and fort of Bomar- 
sund, but shrank from any more hazardous enterprise. 
The Black Sea fleets bombarded Odessa, the granaries 
and merchant shipping being so greatly injured, that the 
Russians complained of the proceeding as a violation of 
civilised warfare. The Turks made a gallant defence of 
Silistria, from before which the enemy, hearing that the 
allied troops were being sent on to Varna, and dread- 
ing a junction between them and the Turkish garrison 
of Schumla, retired precipitately. Nothing more was 
attempted till autumn. The British and French armies 
were kept idling for months in the vicinity of Lake Devna, 
where they suffered dreadfully from cholera and fever. 
Then, to the surprise of their commanders, they were 
ordered to the Crimea in order to attack Sebastopol. 

Invasion of the Crimea. — A landing was made at 



214 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. VIIL 

Old Fort, some thirty miles north of Sebastopol, on the 
14th of September. Six days later, the battle of the 
Alma, was fought. Prince Menschikoff, desiring to bar 
the advance of the allies, awaited them on the southern 
slope of the little valley so named. He was beaten back 
mainly by the gallant onset of the British against his 
centre and right, for the French, advancing by the shore, 
had little to do. Instead of pushing on at once for the 
city, which would then have fallen an easy prey, the 
invaders recoiled from the appearance of defences on the 
north side, which were undermanned and useless, made 
a march round it, and took up position on the south, the 
French communicating with their ships in the harbour of 
Kamiesh, the British with theirs in the harbour of Bala- 
klava. The garrison expected a simultaneous attack by 
sea and land. To guard against the first, seven ships 
were sunk in the harbour so as completely to block the 
channel. To repel the second, energetic preparations 
were made under the directions of Captain Todleben, an 
engineer officer in attendance upon Menschikoff, and of 
Admiral Korniloff, who was left in command. They 
were allowed more time than they had hoped, for again 
the allies, instead of making a sudden dash, resolved upon 
proceeding by way of regular siege. Till the 17th of 
October, they drew lines and cast up parallels, the other 
side being at least equally active. They made their 
assault on that day, and were repulsed. From that time 
onward the contest became mainly one of engineering 
skill. The attack and the defence were almost on a par 
as regards the amount and weight of artillery, while the 
allies not being able to invest the place, Todleben could 
draw supplies and reinforcements from the open country 
behind with little less facility than his opponents could 
bring them across the seas. So the contest proceeded for 
weeks, the besiegers ever pounding away at the fortifica- 
tions ai d entrenchments towards which they were work- 
ing themselves forward; the defenders, while replying to 
this fire, ever strengthening damaged places, or throwing 
up new entrenchments in front of menaced points. The 



A.i>. 1854-1855.] INVASION OP THE CRIMEA, 215 

monotony of this toilsome work was varied by two inci- 
dents, in which the Russians assumed the offensive. On 
25th October, they made a furious attack upon Bala- 
klava, with the object of cutting the British off from their 
base and depot. On 5th November, a still more formid- 
able and desperate attack was made on the British position 
at Tnkerman, intending to drive the defenders back upon 
their ships, or into the sea. Both efforts were defeated, 
through the valour and tenacity of those assailed. They 
were successful, however, in so far as they prevented any 
renewal of the assault upon the citadel, and compelled the 
besiegers to winter on the bare and wind-swept heights 
they held. 

For this no preparations had been made. The season 
proved one of terrible severity. The three armies en- 
dured straits and privations of the most grievous cast 
- — though reporters were allowed only in the British 
camp. An enforced pause of well-nigh four dreary 
months ensued. Avail was taken of it to try whether a 
peace could not be arranged. For this purpose a con- 
ference was held at Yienna. Complete agreement was 
readily arrived at on every point but one — the restriction 
of Russia's naval power in the Black Sea. Some half 
dozen , projects of limitation, counterpoise, and appeal 
to the other Powers were successively considered and 
rejected, sometimes by one side, sometimes by the other. 
In the end the conference broke up without result. 
While it was sitting Nicholas died, but events for a time 
went on as before. The new Tsar hastened to proclaim 
that, as regards the conflict, he recognised two great obli- 
gations — to defend Russia with all his might, but to 
further any peace founded on the bases his father had 
sanctioned. These bases were defined as being — to 
confirm the freedom of worship among the Christian 
peoples of Turkey; to place the immunities of the Prin- 
cipalities under a collective guarantee; to secure the 
free navigation of the Danube for all traders; to put 
an end to the rivalries of the great Powers respecting 
the East; and, specially, to arrive at an understanding 



216 



HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 



[CHAP. VII !. 



jw to the principles of closing the Dardanelles and the 
Bosphorus. 




SEBASTOPOL. 

The Fall of Sebastopol and the Peace of Paris. — The 
war was renewed in March with greatly augmented 
forces, the strength of the allies having been increased 
not only by fresh recruits, but by a contingent from the 
little kingdom of Sardinia. New defences had been 
reared in the interval, and old ones had been made very 
formidable, especially those immense works which were 
named the Great Redan, the Little Redan, and the 
Malakoff. The last, an insignificant construction at first, 
was now a formidable affair, and occupied a site which 
made it the key of the position. All through the summer 
much desultory fighting went on. Thrice the allies sul>> 



A.l>. 1854-1856.] THE SALL OF SEBAStOFOL. 217 

jected the works to a furious bombardment, as a prelimi- 
nary to an assault, but each time the attempt at capture 
was frustrated. As the autumn waned, Prince Gortscha- 
koff, now in command, made a resolute effort to shake off 
the besiegers. His plan was a repetition of that tried at 
Inkerman. A great battle ensued, known as that of Trak- 
tir, the brunt of which was victoriously sustained by the 
French and Sardinians. A month later, on the 8th of Sep- 
tember, after another dreadful bombardment, the French 
got inside the Malakoff, though they were repulsed from 
before the Little Redan, as were the British in assailing 
the companion work. At once Gortschakoff, carrying 
with him whatever was transportable, crossed to the 
north side of the town by a bridge, which he immediately 
afterwards destroyed, and established himself there be lore 
his departure was known. No serious attempt was made 
to molest him. The war came to an end for the winter, 
save in Asia, where, on the 28th November, Kars was taken 
by the Russians, after a prolonged defence by the Turks, 
under the British General Williams. It soon became evi- 
dent that France was averse to its renewal. On loth De- 
cember a trusted French authority wrote: "All that the 
Eastern war could give to France — in moral or political 
results, in strength, in consideration, or in influence in 
the councils of Europe — it has granted ; why, therefore, 
not agree to a peace on the terms proposed since the coqi- 
mencement of hostilities'?" The. road to an agreement 
was smoothed by the proclamation at Constantinople of 
a firman, named a " Hatti-Hamayoum," which gave to 
the Christian subjects of the Porte a wider toleration 
than had hitherto been conceded — giving them, indeed, 
co-ordinate civil rights with the Mohammedan population 
throughout the empire ; and this firman, it was under- 
stood, the Sultan was willing to submit to the cognisance 
of the Powers. On the Russian side, the Ts ir accepted 
the proposal made at Vienna as to the Black Sea, with 
an interpretation which did not sensibly affect its mean- 
ing, Britain and France likewise recalling their scruples. 
The rule finally adopted was that Russia and Turkey 



218 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [OHAP. Till. 

might each have six war steamers, not exceeding 800 
tons each, in addition to four light vessels: but that the 
arrangement of 1841, according to which the Sultan was 
empowered to prohibit the entrance of all other ships of 
war, should be renewed. 

Peace was signed at Paris on the 30th of March, 1856. 
Napoleon III. lauded its terms as "honourable to all, 
humiliating to none." The Tsar gave his opinion in a 
manifesto which expressed much satisfaction at the close 
of the struggle; declared that Russia did not begin it; 
described her object as having been to protect her 
co-religionists in the East from persecution ; asserted that 
her arms had triumphed everywhere except at Sebastopol, 
where "the heroic defence of the fortifications, erected 
under the eyes and the fire of the assailants, will live in 
the memories of the most distant posterity;" and explained 
that " Providence having prepared, in an unexpected 
way, an act which realised the object of the war, inas- 
much as the future condition and rights of the Christians 
in the East were to be guaranteed," he could with a good 
conscience stop the efforts and sacrifices Russia had been 
called to make, and welcome the invaluable blessings of 
peace. The reference was, of course, to the " Hatti," 
which embodied the principles that Britain, France, and 
Austria had combined to press upon the Porte, which 
was then promulgated as a spontaneous act on the part 
of the Sultan, and of which the Paris Conference declared 
that "the contracting Powers recognise the high value;" 
while the Turkish minister, in a representation to all the 
Powers, though speaking of it " as only the confirmation 
and development of the Act of Gulhane [issued in 1839], 
which solemnly decreed the regime of equality, and opened 
the era of reform in the Ottoman empire," also pointed 
out this difference — that "the Act of Gulhane was merely 
the acknowledgment of a right and the promise of a 
reform which might remain barren, but this would con- 
vert promises into facts, and introduce them into the 
institutions of the country." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE REIGN OP ALEXANDER II. 

The Death of Nicholas. — The death of the Tsar 
Nicholas, on the 2nd March, 1854, was ascribed through- 
out western Europe to heart-break and chagrin. The 
truth is that, contrary to the advice of his physicians, he 
attended some military exercises while suffering from a 
severe influenza; that the exposure aggravated his malady; 
and that, while it ran a fatal course with unexpected 
suddenness, he behaved with the greatest calm. No 
doubt his equanimity was the covering of a spirit sorely 
smitten and chafed. Equally certain is it that, though 
the mass of the Russian people looked up to him with a 
superstitious veneration and pride, his decease enabled 
them to breathe more freely. In his later years the 
prerogative of absolute power, which no man can safely 
wield, had developed in him an overweening arrogance 
which was* distinctly fanatical. At the same time, the 
sense of insecurity by which he was haunted had ren- 
dered him incredibly suspicious and severe. He conde- 
scended to a detestable espionage ; policemen and spies 
swarmed everywhere. He exerted a grinding tyranny; 
no one could guess who next would be struck down, or 
to what abasement he might be doomed. Before the 
Crimean war, which would have been avoided save for 
the combination of strength and weakness in his charac- 
ter, there existed a deal of latent discontent ; and the 
progress of the conflict did much to further its spread 
and to enhance its intensity. He had not wished to 
fight; like others of the combatants, he drifted into the 
strife; but he was not so weak as to shrink from a cliaX- 



220 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX. 

lenge, nor so strong as to win a victory that would have 
made fighting superfluous. However loath he may have 
been to enter upon the struggle, it is certain that he 
hoped to come out triumphantly. He thought his army 
invincible. This delusion was played upon to their 
own profit by the servile crowd who surrounded him. 
When news came of swiftly-occurring defeats and dis- 
asters, he and they were confounded. The truth was 
jealously concealed from the people; perhaps the whole 
of it did not reach himself. Enough was known, how- 
ever, to beget universal mistrust and uneasiness. The 
autocrat grew more and more morose, inaccessible, and 
impatient of contradiction. The people filled up their 
defective knowledge by the most unfavourable conjec- 
tures, and eagerly welcomed the violent statements and 
criticisms which found expression in a widely-circulated 
manuscript literature, and still more in such publications 
as the Kolokol (the Bell), a journal printed in London for 
Herzen, a refugee, which was smuggled into the country 
by hundreds of thousands. 

Accession of Alexander — Sects of Russian Agitators. 
— The new Tsar, Alexander II., was thirty-seven when 
he ascended the throne. Little was known of him, yet 
he was generally credited with the clement and liberal 
temper of his uncle, after whom he was named. This 
idea received countenance from the immediate dismissal 
of certain obnoxious officials, and a general relaxation of 
the stringent police system. The liberty thus conceded 
was not only received with delight, it was used without 
stint in a manner that horrified the few persons who now 
professed belief in the wisdom of the old rule> The 
country seethed with debate upon projects of reform, 
many of them tremendously radical and comprehensive. 
Three classes of agitators may be discriminated. There 
were the aristocrats — who had been hurt by the scornful 
isolation of Nicholas in standing so far apart from them 
and above them, and conferring only with his chosen 
councillors — who, despite their pretensions to rank with 
the richest, the most brilliant, and most accomplished of 



A.D. 1854-1856.] RUSSIAN AGITATORS. 221 

European nobles, had been shut out from the political 
influence that falls to their western compeers — and who 
now sought to find place and play for the dispositions 
of an oligarchy. There were the Pan-Slavists — a sect 
originated outside Russia by John Kollar, a Bohemian 
clergyman, poet, and historian, who, with certain like- 
minded associates, had sought to elucidate the affinities 
of the Slavonian dialects, and to establish a common 
literature; whose patriotic and ethnographical ideas had, 
with the connivance of Nicholas, been transferred to the 
region of politics — the notion of a great Slavonic empire, 
gathered round Russia, and spreading over the East, being- 
one to fascinate him ; which notion, however, taken up 
by the students of Moscow, then under the influence of 
Schelling and the German Romanticists, had been carried 
much farther back, till it prompted a special regard for 
"whatever was native and indigenous, found the golden 
age of the country in the days anterior to Peter's so-called 
reforms, or even to the Mongol domination, and was 
transmuted into the doctrine that the last and best result 
of Slavonic development would consist in a recurrence to 
its primitive types. There were the ultra-democrats — 
led by Herzen and his associates, levellers of the most 
extreme breed, who made much of the ancient communal 
institutions of Russia, but only in order to graft upon them 
the teachings of French socialism ; for to them an histo- 
rical basis was a thing of wind, national partialities were 
unwarrantable, and the gospel of political reformation 
was comprised in the principles of liberty, equality, and 
fraternity, as preached by the adherents of red republi- 
canism. It says much for the Tsar, that at first he was 
neither dizzied nor alarmed by the hubbub which was 
raised by the advocates of these and other theories. It 
appeared that he was thinking out plans of wide reach 
and grave consequence. 

Withdrawal of Russia from Foreign Politics. — For 
some time Russia held aloof from all concern in foreign 
politics, at least on the European side. Shortly after 
Alexander's coronation, which took place with great 



222 HIST011Y OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX. 

splendour in September, 1856, Prince Gortschakoff, whc 
tad succeeded to the office of chancellor, addressed a 
circular to the European Powers, in which he complained 
of what he called violations of the European compact on 
their part, but added that Russia did not charge herself 
with interfering, and explained why. " Russia," he wrote, 
" is reproached with isolating herself, and remaining 
silent in presence of facts not accordant with right or 
justice. Russia, it is said, * sulks.' Russia does not 
sulk : Russia is collecting herself [se receuille]." 

Abolition of Serfdom. — The first result of this with- 
drawal appeared in a measure which will make the reign 
of Alexander ever memorable — a re-modelling of the 
agrarian Jaws. To abolish serfdom was one of the 
schemes that engaged the mind of Catherine II. Her 
grandson, Alexander I., had dreamt about it. Even 
Nicholas had appointed committee after committee to 
inquire; but after 1838 all action had been dropped. 
At the time of his coronation, Alexander II. mentioned 
in presence of the nobles that he had an earnest desire to 
effect the object; but they scouted his design, and refused 
to believe he had the independence or ability to make 
anything of it. In this they were mistaken. He per- 
severed, and the announcement of his purpose brought to 
him such an accession of strength that their attempts to 
resist, or to weight his policy with extravagant demands 
for compensation, were rendered futile. Much inquiry 
and thought led to the issue, early in 1861, of a decree 
which effectively secured the main object aimed at, while 
it included a great number of most ingeniously contrived 
adjustments to make the scheme fair and workable. 

The rule had been that a portion of every estate, gene- 
rally about two-thirds, was reserved for the use of the 
mir, or village community, who possessed it in common. 
A new division was made every nine years. Account 
was taken for the most part of the size of the family in 
making the allotment. According to Godunoff's law, no 
peasant could sever his connection with his mir, or escape 
the thraldom of servitude to the owner of the estate where 



A.D. 1854-1856.] ABOLITION OP SERFDOM. 223 

it was situated. These serfs were of two classes — house- 
hold and agricultural. The first were entirely dependent 
on their lord. The second had to till his land, without 
wages, for three days in the week. Runaways were 
punished with great severity; but any peasant, desiring to 
settle in the towns, might arrange with his lord, if he 
could, for leave to do so, either by buying his own 
freedom or paying a yearly tax. Many proprietors derived 
in this w T ay large revenues from serfs who had become rich 
merchants or tradesmen. By the new scheme household 
servants were bound to serve for two years at a fixed wage, 
after which they could do as they liked. The town 
settlers were also to retain their old condition for two 
years, but it was decreed that the tribute payable by them 
should not exceed thirty roubles for a man (about <£4) and 
ten for a woman. The crown peasants, who formed more 
than a third of the whole number, were dealt with very 
generously. Possessions were assigned to them for which 
they are to pay rent at the rate of the poll-tax pre- 
viously exigible during forty-nine years, after which the 
land is to pass as freehold property to them or their 
children. The case of the remaining serfs was the most 
complex and difficult. It was dealt with in an elaborate 
manner, which has proved substantially successful. Pre- 
cautions were taken that the proprietors should not 
encroach upon the territories requisite for the self-sustain- 
ing completeness and further development of the village 
communities, while the gratuitous cession of the area 
which was marked off under the superintendence of 
officials called peace-mediators, was rendered as palatable 
as it well could be. Counter-precautions were also taken 
that the peasantry should not lapse into idleness nor 
Tagabondage, while facilities and inducements to self- 
elevation were supplied. The mir was dealt with as the 
unit recognised by the law in regard to the land. The 
system of common husbandry and periodical re-allotments 
to which the emancipated serfs had been accustomed was 
retained, except they could themselves agree to an altera- 
tion, though, when such an agreement was arrived at. 



224 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX 

then any individual who desired to exchange his position 
of copyholder for that of freeholder got help by meai a 
of a government loan. The communal system was thus 
fitted to become the cradle of a peasant-proprietary ; but 
the existence of a stable mir, or of a stable peasantry, was 
ensured. At present all the three forms of proprietor- 
ship — large estates, peasant-ownerships, and communal 
holdings — subsist side by side, and they are likely to 
supply an instructive comparison in modes of agricultural 
life. By the law now described, 23,000,000 of people 
were restored to' personal freedom. 

Further Reforms. — Eighteen months later two other 
great reforms were introduced. The administration of 
justice had become unspeakably corrupt, dilatory, and 
hap-hazard. The judges had frequently no legal know- 
ledge. The law books were antiquated and unpractical. 
Bribery was practised on a great scale. Cases were hung 
up from year to year by interminable appeals. Ver^ 
often the final decision was dictated by high-placed officials 
outside the courts. The fundamental law of September 
29th, 1862, abolished all privileged jurisdictions ; the 
interference of the executive with the law courts was 
prohibited ; their transactions were ordered to be public 
and oral; the number of appeals and the time for making 
them was limited ; it was decided that criminal charges 
should be determined by a jury; and (six months later) 
corporal punishment was abrogated. Simultaneously 
with these important and salutary changes, which at once 
gained the confidence of the people and raised both their 
sense of right and their respect for law, there came the 
institution of a new local government by boards of admin- 
istration, appointed by, and responsible to, district and 
provincial assemblies. The district assembly comprises 
delegates from landed proprietors, from the inhabitants 
of towns, and from the elders of the peasant communities. 
It chooses the board for its own district, as also repre- 
sentatives to the district assembly, by whom in its turn 
a provincial board is chosen. To these authorities are 
entrusted the supervision of all matters connected with 



A.D. 1854-1856.] ANOTHER POLISH INSURRECTION. 235 

the maintenance of highways and public buildings, the 
material requirements for civil and military administra- 
tion within their bounds, and the collection of local taxes, 
but general politics are peremptorily excluded. The 
members of the boards are paid. It is alleged this experi- 
ment has not been so successful as the other, and the 
reason given is that the large landowners have been 
excluded by the boards in favour of poor men, to whom 
the salary is an object. 

Another Polish Insurrection. — The course of benefi- 
cent legislation thus entered upon was arrested and 
turned by an unhappy event. Fresh troubles broke out 
in Poland, which were not, in the first instance, very 
wisely managed. The Poles were excited by what was 
then happening in Italy. They persisted in thinking that 
what Napoleon III. was doing for the Italians he would 
be willing to do for them. They were misled into the 
belief that, if the government at St. Petersburg was not 
inherently weak, it would be found anxiously compliant. 
Accordingly, they resolved to hold a patriotic celebration 
on the scene of their overthrow in 1830. The governor 
foolishly thought the wisest plan to prevent this, was by 
occupying the ground beforehand for a review in honour 
of the victory then achieved. Naturally enough a col- 
lision ensued, blood was shed, and ill-feeling was aroused. 
The populace carried the corpses of those slain on their 
side to the French consulate, where they invoked justice 
and revenge in the name of Napoleon. At this juncture 
the nobles who remained in Warsaw intervened, and for 
a time it seemed as if the disturbance would be allayed. 
They mollified the populace, getting the honour of a 
public funeral for those slain in the riots. They com- 
pounded with the Tsar, obtaining from him the pledge 
that all his decrees should run in the name of the Polish 
King; that a Council of Notables should be called, having 
as its head Count Zamoyski ; that full municipal govern- 
ment should be given to cities and communes, and that 
the system of national education should be revised. 
Moreover, he appointed his brother, the Grand Duke 



226 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX. 

Constantine, wlio had loyally stood by him in his various 
Russian reforms, as Viceroy. Hardly had the Grand 
Duke set foot in Warsaw when two attempts were made 
to assassinate him. He remained at his post, adopting 
as his prime adviser the old Marquis Wielopolski, who 
had been the envoy of the revolutionary government to 
Great Britain in 1830. Meantime the ferment spread. 
Lithuania caught the infection. True to his democratic 
principles. Herzen, who had become the tribune of the 
Russian people, advocated the movement with his cus- 
tomary fervour. It was a movement, however, that 
involved not merely questions of abstract right but of 
national position. Herzen's appeals were contradicted 
in that sense by another journalist, Katkoff, with an 
eloquence and fervour equal to his own, and with an 
effect which not only destroyed his ascendancy but dic- 
tated the governmental procedure. Stern Russians were 
appointed to administer Lithuania. Wielopolski, hoping 
to avert the like appointments for Poland proper, at the 
usual conscription devised a scheme by which he pro- 
posed to have all the dangerous youths chosen and drafted 
off". This project was revealed, and it aggravated the 
difficulty, leading to eighteen months' hard fighting. In 
the course of it, Generals Mouravieff and Berg behaved 
very ruthlessly. At its close a decree was passed 
which, for a trivial sum payable to the government, made 
the Polish peasant the proprietor of his rented land, thus 
ruining the nobles, while most of the monasteries were 
abolished, the estates of the clergy were confiscated, and 
means more efficacious than had ever been before resorted 
to were employed to stamp out everything distinctively 
Polish. This was the work mainly of the minister 
Miluytin, an enthusiastic Pan-Slavist, who had been a 
prime adviser in the task of serf emancipation, and who 
now found an opportunity for carrying out his theories 
more boldly than was formerly possible. The policy 
tended in so far to discomfit and weaken the democratic 
partisanship of Herzen, but it created much jealousy 
among the Russian nobles, who could not but descry in 



A.D. 1854-1856.] A CONSERVATIVE REACTION. 227 

it a menace to themselves. At first the European powers 
looked coldly on at what was done. Napoleon III. 
desired to intervene, but could not make up his mind 
when or how. He joined with Britain in offering 
remonstrances, which Prince Gortschakoff at first 
accepted in principle, though in the end, after he had 
concluded an alliance with Prussia, he refused to give 
them any practical application. Talk of war he then 
disregarded, and Napoleon, who fell back upon the pro- 
posal of a General Congress, wherein various shattered 
schemes he had thoughts of might be re-pieced, had 
his suggestion negatived by a curt refusal from the 
British minister. 

A Conservative Reaction. — The extension to Russia 
of such measures as had been introduced to Poland never 
made any way. Instead, after the 4th of April, 1866, a 
distinctly conservative bias was given to the domestic 
policy of the empire. On that day the Tsar was shot at 
by a Moscow student named KarakosofF. He was neither 
aristocrat, German, nor Pole, but one of the extreme 
socialist and democratic party, who had assumed the name 
of Nihilists, because they would accept nothing, pro- 
claimed their intention to overthrow all existing order, 
and sought to annihilate church, state, property, marriage, 
and society. Immediately after the revelations that fol- 
lowed upon the inquiries prompted by his crime, an 
imperial manifesto was issued, stating that dangerous 
intrigues against the principles of right, property, and reli- 
gion had been discovered; that these must be held sacred: 
and that, in so far as the doings of the government had 
been held to militate against them, the intention of the 
Tsar had been misapprehended. At the same time, 
certain significant changes were made in the administra- 
tion. Count Schuvaloff was brought from being governor 
of Livonia to be director-general of the political police 
in the capital, and other men of conservative tendencies 
were promoted to office. A little later, some extreme 
journals were suppressed. There was no recurrence to 
the terrorism that marked the later days of Nicholas, but 



228 HISTORY 09 RUSSIA, [CHAP. IX. 

the license that distinguished the early days of Alexander 
was never again tolerated. 

Russian Advance in Asia, — During the first decade 
of the Tsar's reign, abstinence from voluntary action in 
Europe was compensated by much activity iu Asia. The 
pacification of the Caucasus was effected, the Mohamme- 
dan tribes in the Transcaucasian portion of the empire 
being thoroughly subdued. In 1859 the mountain-hero 
Schamyl, who for well-nigh half a century had waged an 
adventurous war for the independence of his country, was 
captured, and with his seizure all resistance collapsed. 
He was taken to St. Petersburg, where he was well 
received and well treated ; but those of his people who 
did not at once submit were driven down to the shores of 
the Black Sea, where the Turks gladly received them, 
assigning thousands of them free quarters, not in Asia 
Minor, but in Bulgaria — an arrangement productive of 
much evil afterwards. Beyond the Caucasus further con- 
quests have since been made with a rapidity comparable 
only to the development of the British empire in India. 
By a concentric movement, proceeding from Siberia and 
the Caspian, the Khanates of Bokhara, Khiva, £jad 
Khokand have one after another been reduced to a state 
of vassalage. Much complaint was raised about an alleged 
breach of faith in connection with the Khivan expedition 
of 1873, and the cruelties perpetrated by the invaders 
The expedition was undertaken to overawe the maraud 
ing .population of Turkestan, who were in the habit of 
pillaging the Russian and Persian caravans, and captur- 
ing those who conducted them, who were then sold in 
Khiva as slaves. The British government took alarm 
at how far retaliation might be carried, and received a 
general pledge that Khiva would not be annexed. Even 
before the upshot, eminent Anglo-Indians, notoriously 
hostile to Russia, such as Sir Henry Bawlinson, declared 
that this engagement could not be observed fully without 
loss and peril. The extent to which it has been infringed; 
is that General Kaufman, after liberating thousands of 
slaves, took over territory up to the line of the Amu 



A.©. 1858-1860.] KUS3IA AND TUBtfES. 229 

Daya, where Russian gunboats can protect the naviga- 
tion. As to the alleged cruelties, it is noticeable that the 
witness whose testimony is adduced to substantiate them, 
Mr. Eugene Schuyler, a representative of the United 
States, distinctly says, on a general review, that the move- 
ment was marked by " great discipline and humanity/' 

Russia and Turkey. — Even from the first the with- 
drawal of Russia from the field of European politics was 
not so complete as to prevent vigilant observation and 
occasional interference. This was especially true of her 
conduct in regard to Turkey. She took the part of the 
Servian Assembly when it deposed the son of Czerny- 
George, and recalled old Milosch to the throne. In con- 
junction with France she diligently protected the little 
state of Montenegro in its frequent squabbles with 
the Sultan. She championed the union of Moldavia 
and Wallachia, and helped to nullify the compromise 
of separate administration by promoting the election 
of Prince Couza for each province, greatly to the wrath 
of both Austria and the Porte. In 1860 she convened 
the ambassadors of the great Powers to examine " the 
painful and precarious position to which the Christians 
of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria are placed," and 
afterwards issued a circular in which that position is 
described, asking the other Powers to verify her accusa- 
tions. The consuls of the various European states were 
thereupon instructed to report upon the subject. Their 
answers supply the materials for one of the most terrible 
indictments ever laid against a government. They showed 
that the property, the honour, the lives of the Christian 
populations, were at the mercy of the Mussulmans; that 
the benefit of the law was scarcely obtainable in any case 
except through bribery, while, where Moslem prejudices 
were concerned, it was not obtainable at all ; and that 
the vaunted Hatti Hamayoum had remained a dead 
letter. When the Turkish massacres took place in Syria 
immediately afterwards, Russia instructed her naval force 
off the Syrian coast to co-operate with that of Britain in 
whatever mode the commander of the British squadron 



230 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. JCHA*. IX. 

might deem best for the behoof of the Christians and of 
the European residents; and though she had not a single 
soldier in the country, remonstrated against ending the 
Anglo-French occupation till efficient protective measures 
had been established. When like massacres were per- 
petrated in Crete, during the winter of 1866, she cor- 
dially adopted the proposal of Austria, which gained also 
the assent of France, that it had become needful for the 
safety of the Christian populations of Turkey to put 
them under the protectorate of the whole of Europe, 
endowing them with independent institutions, in accord- 
ance with their varied religions and races — Prince Gorts- 
chakoff arguing that " the only escape from the course of 
expedients and palliatives, which had served but to 
increase difficulties," was to encourage " the gradual 
development of autonomous states." In 1870 she pressed 
for, and obtained, from a conference held in London, 
release from the clauses in the treaty of Paris by which 
the Black Sea was neutralised. The settlement arrived 
at was nowise distasteful to Turkey, who regarded 
her own expulsion from those waters as humiliating, was 
full of confidence in certain new " iron-clads " she had 
obtained, and was pleased by having her command over 
the narrow straits revived and strengthened. 

Troubles in Bosnia. — Such had been the course of the 
relations betwixt Russia and Turkey since the time of 
the Crimean war. During the autumn of 1874 disturb- 
ances broke out in the Herzegovina. The harvest had 
been scant and poor. Many of the population were 
reduced to dire straits. Nevertheless, the Mohammedan 
tax-farmers made no abatement of their oppressive exac- 
tions. Their rapacious cruelty provoked a general move- 
ment for resistance and redress. The Herzegovinians 
appealed to their Montenegrin brethren, who gave them 
effective help in withstanding the robberies to which they 
were subjected. They appealed to the Austrian Emperor, 
then making a tour in Dalmatia. They even appealed 
to the British government through a memorial drawn up 
by one of their Roman Catholic bishops. The stir they 



A.B. 1866-1876.] TROUBLES IN BOSNIA. 931 

made led to the appointment of a consular commission of 
inquiry. It was presided over by Servir Pasha. Its 
report confirmed many of the worst charges that had 
been advanced, and recommended sundry important 
reforms. An " irade " was issued from Constantinople, 
ordering that they should be made; but, amid the throes 
that attended a declaration of national bankruptcy, no 
heed was given to their execution. The rising assumed 
larger proportions, and attracted the notice of the au- 
thorities at Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. What 
they thought of it was explained in a Note drawn by 
Count Andrassy, the Austrian minister. It described 
the Herzegovinian and Bosnian Christians as reduced to 
a state in which they felt themselves slaves. It proposed 
reforms much more extensive than the scheme of the 
consular delegation, such as, in addition to the establish- 
ment of religious freedom, the sale at a cheap rate to the 
peasantry of waste lands, and the expenditure within the 
province of all the direct taxes. Further, it represented 
that, as the peoples had been so often deceived that they 
could not trust the Sultan's word, it was requisite that 
the Powers should receive from him a formal acceptance 
and adequate pledges for its fulfilment. The propriety 
of this course was enforced by a hint that the govern- 
ments of Servia and Montenegro had found difficulty in 
keeping their populations quiet; and that, if the spring 
passed with nothing done, it might be impossible to pre- 
vent the rebelliously-disposed peoples all about from 
revolting. The British government demurred to this 
Note, giving a final consent to its presentation in a form 
that robbed it of its practical value. The Porte bettered 
this example, so that nothing came of the proposal. 
Meantime the insurrection became more determined and 
sanguinary. In May, 1876, the representatives of the 
three Powers met at Berlin, and drew up a memoran- 
dum containing a fresh set of expedients for restoring 
peace. France and Italy cordially endorsed them. The 
British government refused to do so, and the document 
was never officially transmitted to the Porte. In «17 



232 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX 

these deliberations Russia had played a secondary part ; 
but in June she came to the front. Prince Gortschakoff 
invited the London cabinet to propose whatever solution 
it might favour, adding that the necessity was urgent, if 
they would avoid a conflagration in the East, perhaps 
even a war of extermination. The answer was, " Nothing 
remained except to allow a renewal of the struggle, till 
success should declare itself more or less decisively on 
one side or the other." 

The Bulgarian Atrocities. — While these negotiations 
were in progress the area of the struggle was greatly 
widened. The Turks say they had information of a con- 
spiracy, having its headquarters at Outloukien, in Bul- 
garia, the object of which was a general massacre of the 
Mussulman population. The action taken by the governor 
upon this report provoked a riot, which speedily grew to 
the magnitude of an insurrection. To quell it the resi- 
dent Circassian?!, and the irregular soldiers whom the 
Turks call Bashi-Bazouks, were let loose upon the Chris- 
tian inhabitants. They conducted themselves with a 
ferocity that would have disgraced the following of an 
Attila or a Tamerlane. The story of the atrocities they 
committed stirred and thrilled the opinion of Europe. 
Whatever exaggerations there may have been in some of 
the reports, there is ample evidence that ruthless and 
heart-sickening cruelties were perpetrated upon a scale 
of astounding magnitude. Rapine, carnage, and every 
evil passion characteristic of a savage and irrespon- 
sible soldiery, were allowed free scope. Districts of large 
extent were swept utterly desolate, the dwellers being 
plundered, tortured, and put to death. Mr. Walter 
Baring, the secretary to the British legation, who was 
sent to make an independent inquiry as to the facts, and 
whose report goes to minimise the statements of unoffi- 
cial investigators, nevertheless says, " The manner in 
which the rising was suppressed was inhuman in the last 
degree, fifty innocent persons suffering for every guilty 
one;" and he computed that "no fewer than 12,000 
persons perished in the Sandjak of Philippopolis alone." 



A.D. 1874-1877.] CONFERENCE AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 233 

Servia declares War. — The Servian government was 
awkwardly placed during these troubles. Its obvioug 
interests prompted to the maintenance of peace. Yet it 
was difficult to suppress the rage which the treatment of 
the Bulgarians excited. A taste of it was occasionally 
brought nearer home, for the Bashi-Bazouks were not 
careful in regard to boundary lines, and sometimes crossed 
the border to burn, and slay > and terrorise among the 
prosperous farms and villages of Servia. Representations 
made at Constantinople on this subject were contumeli- 
ously spurned. Thereupon a strong measure of patriotic 
feeling was aroused. Upwards of 70,000 men volun- 
teered for service against the Turks; and there was a great 
display of liberality in offering war contributions for their 
support. Enthusiasm is a strong force, but it could not 
render a levy of ill-armed peasants a match for the 
Turkish hosts. The Servians had some successes at first. 
They penetrated a considerable way down the Morava 
Valley. Discomfiture befell them, however, when they 
encountered the Turk in force. In a few weeks after 
their declaration of hostilities, the remnant of their army 
was back in disorder at Deligrad. A few weeks more 
saw the road to their capital laid open, while the Turks 
were pressing upon their government very humiliating 
conditions. They escaped its acceptance through a com- 
bination of the great Powers to enforce an armistice, 
which speedily became a peace. 

Conference at Constantinople. — This was the work of 
Britain. The news of the Bulgarian atrocities led to a 
brisk interchange of views between the European Powers. 
All those of the Continent agreed that the misrule of the 
Porte must be brought to an end ; that some measure of 
self-government for the disturbed provinces was a sine 
qua non of any settlement likely to last; and that if 
Turkey should refuse to be counselled, she ought then to 
be coerced into obedience. For effecting this purpose 
Russia proposed that her troops should occupy Bulgaria ; 
that the Austrians should occupy Bosnia; and that the 
British fleet should enter the Bosphorus and dominate 



234 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IJL 

Constantinople. The British government objected to any 
armed demonstration, but proposed an armistice, and a 
conference of the Powers as to what should be done. 
The bases of agreement suggested were — the status quo as 
regarded Servia and Montenegro; the grant of local and 
administrative self-government to Bosnia and Herzego- 
vina; and guarantees against continued mal-administration 
in Bulgaria. These suggestions were accepted; but, while 
accepting them, Russia also called out a portion of her 
army, not, as she explained, because she wished for war, 
or was averse from the purposes laid down by agreement 
with the other Powers, in the mode they contemplated, 
but because she was determined to have these purposes 
made secure. 

The conference did nothing to secure them. It met 
at Constantinople on December 18, 1876. A month was 
spent in the consideration, first of counter-proposals 
with which the Turks tried to stop the plenipotentiaries, 
and then of Turkish objections to the plans they came 
to urge. These plans were gradually lowered to what 
the Russian representative termed an " irreducible mini- 
mum." The Turks would not consent to the appointment 
by the Powers of mixed commissions charged to superin- 
tend the execution of needed reforms. Consequent upon 
this obstinate refusal, the conference broke up — Lord 
Salisbury, the British representative, declaring with much 
emphasis, that his government stood clear of all responsi- 
bility for what might ensue, and that it " must rest solely 
upon the Sultan and his advisers." At the same time, he 
wrote home, " The principal object of my mission, the con- 
clusion of a peace between Russia and Turkey, has failed." 

The Protocol of London. — Still, Russia did not under- 
take hostilities. Instead, she pointed out to the other 
Powers that the conduct of the Porte had brought the 
Eastern crisis to a new phase. They were all concerned, 
she said, to vindicate and enforce the advice they had 
proffered. For herself, she could not withdraw her troops 
without having obtained some substantive improvement 
in the condition of the Christian peoples; but, before 



A.D. 1874-1877.] WAR BEGUN. 23& 

sending them forward, she was "desirous of knowing the 
limits within which the cabinets with whom she had 
endeavoured, and still desired, so far as may be possible, 
to proceed in common, are willing to act." The issue of 
this inquiry was a protocol, signed at London on the 31st 
of March, in which the six Powers invited the Porte to 
cany out its promises in its own way, merely adding that 
they " proposed to watch, by means of their representa- 
tives at Constantinople and their local agents, the manner 
in which they are carried into effect." Even to this 
Turkey objected. It was an abrogation of the independ- 
ence guaranteed by the treaty of Paris ; to let it pass 
in silence would be to surrender all she had fought for as 
regards freedom from foreign intervention ; rather than 
acquiesce, she would face the risk of an unsuccessful war 
and the loss of one or two provinces. 

War Begun — The Objects of Russia. — War was thus 
made inevitable. On the 20th of April the Tsar left 
St. Petersburg for Kischenoff, the headquarters of his 
army in Bessarabia. On the 24th an order was given 
his troops to cross the Turkish frontier. It was explained 
this was done in order to obtain that which the unani- 
mous eForts of the Powers had failed to acquire by means 
of an understanding, and so to end a state of things 
incompatible with their welfare and that of Europe. 
Britain alone intimated that the course had not her con- 
currence or approval. At the same time, she gave a 
pledge of neutrality in the contest, provided there was 
no interference with British interests. The conditions 
were frankly accepted. A pledge was given that, although 
the Khedive was sending troops to Turkey, Egypt and the 
Suez Canal would be excluded from the operations of the 
war; that any new arrangement as to the Straits would 
be submitted to the decision of the Powers ; and that n<? 
attempt would be made to acquire Constantinople perma- 
nently, though the light of occupying it for military pur- 
poses, if necessary, was reserved. The Tsar went farther, 
for, in a memorandum dated June 8th, he explained on 
what terms he meant to insist. They included the 



236 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX. 

freedom of Bulgaria up to the Balkans ; guarantees for 
administrative reform in its southern portion ; an increase 
of territory to Montenegro and Servia ; local self-govern- 
ment for Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the independence 
of Boumania. For Bussia he vigh^d nothing but to 
retain the part of Bessarabia tale.i away in 1856, and 
the cession of Batoum, with adjacent territory. If 
Austria deemed herself entitled to compensation, she 
might have it partly in Bosnia and partly in the Herze- 
govina. This statement was corrected in a few days by 
the remark that the separation of Bulgaria into two pro- 
vinces would be impracticable, and therefore that it ought 
to be emancipated throughout. 

The Contest in Asia. — The war opened in Asia with 
a Turkish success. The port of Soukum-Kaleh was taken, 
whence men and arms were sent to foment an insurrection 
in the Caucasus. The attempt did not grow to much, but it 
afforded employment for more men than the Russians could 
spare. Their chief object was to capture Erzeroum. For 
this purpose they marched southwards in three divisions, 
which it was proposed afterwards to concentrate. One 
was directed by the coast road upon Batoum ; another 
went by a parallel line towards the old fortress of Arda- 
han; the third and strongest took a route farther to 
the east, throwing out a force which invested Kars. 
Ardahan was taken on the 17th of May; Bayazid was 
captured by the left wing a few days later; and the com- 
bined divisions inflicted a severe defeat upon Mukhtar 
Pasha at Zaidikhan on the 15th and 16th of June. Then 
the tide turned. Their command of the sea enabled the 
Turks to ward off the attack upon Batoum, and to supply 
Mukhtar with reinforcements. He had taken up a strong 
position covering Erzeroum. When assailed, he not 
only stood his ground, but retaliated so forcibly that the 
invaders were driven back along their whole line, Baya- 
zid was retaken; Kars was relieved; the Russians retired 
within their own frontier; and for two and a half montha 
the two armies lay watching each other, being content to 
act on the defensive. 



A.D. 1874-1877.] THE CONTEST IN EUROPE. 23T 

The Contest in Europe. — Disaster had begun in Asia 

before the Russians really took the field in Europe. It 
is true that no sooner had war been declared than the 
railway bridge over the Sereth, which was dangerously 
near the Danube, was seized, protection being thus secured 
for their communications, as also that by means of torpe- 
does (the first instance given of how efficaciously this 
new engine of war might be used) they destroyed some 
of the Turkish " Monitors " set to guard the Danube, 
and paralysed others. Yet it was not till the night of 
the 21st June that they crossed the river. It had been 
swollen to an unusual height by the spring rains, and 
there is no recollection of a time when it was so late in 
falling. To build pontoon bridges was impossible, and 
nothing remained save to wait. The passage over was 
first made from Galatz, the forces that crossed capturing 
in succession Matchin, Toultscha, and Hirsova, establish- 
ing themselves in the Dobrudscha, laying hold on the 
valley of the Jantra, and threatening the communications 
of the Quadrilateral with the sea. On the 27th of June 
another crossing was made at Simnitza farther up, and 
the town of Sistova was captured. General Krudener 
was sent to the right to push forward by way of Nico- 
polis, which he took early in July; the main army, under 
the Grand Duke Nicholas, took first Biela and then Tir- 
nova, the ancient capital of Bulgaiia; while General 
Gourko, with a force of a few thousand men, chiefly 
Cossacks, forced a difficult way through the Balkans, and 
then assailed the Turkish defenders of the Shipka Pass, 
which had been deemed the only practicable route, in the 
rear, while they were simultaneously attacked in front, 
forcing them to flee by side valleys from a position which 
might have been held against the most tremendous 
assault. Gourko then descended into Koumelia, made 
the people of Adrianople believe he was at their doors, 
and produced a panic in the capital which led to a min- 
isterial revolution and a change of Turkish commanders. 
The change brought a gleam of good fortune to the 
Turkish cause. The new commander was Mehemet All, 



238 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX. 

by descent a French Huguenot, who had received a 
German training, and had been for five and twenty years 
in the Turkish service. He put himself at the head of 
the main Turkish army, and, manoeuvring with consider- 
able skill, drove back the Russians from the line of the 
Lom, and threatened their positions on the Jantra. His 
action was not so prompt, however, as his designs were 
ingenious, and he was plagued by a wilful lieutenant. 
Sulieman Pasha had been recalled in hot haste from 
warring with the Montenegrins, to check the advance of 
Gourko. This he did effectually, and then resolved at 
all hazards to regain the Shipka Pass. He spent almost 
a fortnight in essaying that impossible task, sacrificing 
the lives of twenty thousand men in the fruitless struggle, 
and turning a deaf ear to the orders and entreaties of 
Mehemet, that he would seek a practicable route and join 
him at once. Thus the concert upon which the Turkish 
generalissimo relied was frustrated, and his opportunity 
passed away. The Russians, however, made no progress. 
They were checked by an obstacle on their extreme right. 
Early in the campaign Osman Pasha had issued from 
Widdin, intent upon the defence of Nicopolis. He came 
too late; but his opponents carelessly allowed him to 
settle in Plevna, which had been in their possession. He 
quickly discerned the strategical importance of the place, 
and set himself, with amazing fertility of resource and 
doggedness of resolution, to hold it. Krudener thought 
contemptuously of the improvised fortifications, and mis- 
judged both the strength and the purpose of his enemy. 
An attempt, made four days after the fall of Nicopolis, 
to dislodge him failed. A more determined effort, made 
a fortnight later, led to a bloody and disastrous repulse. 
Six weeks passed, during which the Russian army was 
driven to concentrate, and the conviction grew that, how- 
ever reinforced, it could not move southward till Plevna 
was subdued. A third attack was therefore resolved 
upon. The nominal command of the besieging force wag 
given to Prince Charles of Roumania, whose parliament 
bad declared their country independent of the Turks, and 



A.D. 1874-1877.] CLOSl OF THE STRUGGLE. 239 

who had joined the army at the head of a considerable 
contingent. The place, however, had now been converted 
into a huge fortress; and the attack, delivered on Sep 
tember 11th, after a fierce bombardment of four days^ 
was repelled with heavy loss at all points except two 
— on the south, where a couple of redoubts were taken, 
which had to be relinquished next day; and in the centre, 
where the Roumanians seized and kept a formidable 
work. The acknowledgment was now made that Plevna 
could not be carried by storm, and Todleben was sent for 
to superintend the measures for it? ~*egular investment. 

While steps were taken for that end, the supineness of 
the Russian cavalry commander allowed large convoys of 
provisions and ammunition to get into the place. Mehe- 
met Ali was also displaced in favour of Sulieman. who 
was relied on to show more energv. The change was 
useless. The circle of investment was completed. Sulie- 
man was kept at bay on the east. An army of relief, 
despatched from the south, was intercepted and forced 
back. By the beginning of December the garrison were 
sadly straitened, through lack of provisions and the number 
of their sick and wounded. On the 1 1th, the half-starved 
and tattered force made a supreme effort to break out in 
the direction of Widdin. The rinsf of fire and steel was 
too strong; when Osman fell back it was to find the town 
occupied from the other side; and so a heroic resistance 
of five months' duration ended in his surrender. 

Close of the Struggle. — A month previously an equally 
striking and more unexpected success had been achieved 
in Asia. In the beginning of October Melikoff, the 
Russian general, having been largely reinforced, resumed 
his activity. For some days there was severe fighting 
among the range of hills to the east of Kars, where the 
Turks were strongly posted. They kept their ground 
well; but their enemy having contrived to turn their 
right flank, they were defeated and dispersed. Some of 
them found their way to Kars. A lai-ge number fled to 
Erzeroum. Both places were promptly reinvested. On 
the 10th of November Kars was subjected to a heavy 



240 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [OHAP. IX. 

cannonade. The response was so feeble that encourage- 
ment was given to try an assault. This daring feat was 
put into execution on the morning of the 13th. The 
dispirited garrison, attacked at many points, became con- 
fused and gave way, surrendering a fortress that had been 
counted almost impregnable. With the least possible 
loss of time all the forces that could be spared were sent 
on to aid in the reduction of the companion stronghold. 
The idea was that it also might be carried by a swift and 
powerful stroke, but the severities of an early winter 
prevented its delivery. Snow blocked the passes; stores 
and ammunition could not be sent on as expeditiously as 
men; and it taxed the utmost energies of the besiegers 
for a while to keep themselves in food and shelter. Not- 
withstanding, they were able to announce, soon after the 
new-year, that Erzeroum, Batoum, and Trebizond were 
each isolated and environed, while throughout all Arme- 
nia the Turks had no footing save in these places. 

Meantime their commander had been recalled to aid in 
concerting measures for the defence of Constantinople. 
This had become prudent, because of the rapid successes 
which followed the fall of Plevna. Gonrko had been 
brought to a standstill by Mehemet Ali in the Etropol 
Balkan, on the road to Sophia; but Mehemet was again 
displaced by Sulieman, who brought with him the major 
part of his troops from the Quadrilateral. Again he 
failed. His forces were insufficient to guard all the 
Balkan passes. Gourko came through one from Orchanie, 
mid-winter as it was. Skobeloff and Mirsky came through 
another, named Trajan's Gate. The Turkish forces in the 
Shipka Pass, numbering thirty thousand men, were shut 
in and forced to surrender. Sophia, Ichtiman, Philippo- 
polis, and Adrianople, were in succession abandoned and 
taken. The army of defence was scattered among the 
Rhodope mountains, whence the fugitives made their way 
to the coast, and were transported by sea to Constan- 
tinople. All round, the Turks had to face either the 
experience or the threatening of discomfiture. Todleben 
bad laid siege to Rustchuk. The Roumanians wert 



A.D. 1874-1877.] THE PEACE OP BERLIW. 241 

encamped before Widdin. Servia had once more asserted 
herself, and had cleared her old territory. The Monte- 
negrins, who had behaved with great gallantry all through 
the contest, had entered Albania. What marvel was it 
that a great and exceeding bitter cry for an armistice 
should have been raised % 

The Treaty of San Stefano. — On the 31st of January, 
1877, by which time the Russian forces had been advanced 
to Rodosto, so obtaining command of the Eskene valley, 
and of the direct railway to Constantinople, preliminary 
conditions of peace were signed, and an armistice, termin- 
able on three days' notice, was agreed to. The conditions 
were a transcript of those as regards the European pro- 
vinces of Turkey, which were communicated to the British 
government before the war, and were received with an 
announcement of satisfaction that they were so moderate 
— with the addition of a proviso that the Porte was to 
compensate Russia for the losses and cost she had in- 
curred. Lines of demarcation were drawn for the two 
armies, establishing betwixt them a neutral zone of seven 
miles in width ; but the Turkish line was behind the last 
outlying defences of the capital, so that practically, should 
the turn of events have demanded it, the Russians might 
have taken military possession of Constantinople in a few 
hours' time. After a month of anxious negotiation and 
tormenting delay, the preliminary conditions of peace 
were expanded into a definite treaty as between Russia 
and Turkey, which was subscribed at San Stefano on the 
3rd of March. 

The Peace of Berlin. — The bargain was precise and 
formal enough ; but, inasmuch as it affected the treaties 
of 1856 and 1871, it needed the sanction of the European 
Powers. Ere it was given a long controversy ensued, 
which was represented on the one side as turning merely 
upon the terms in which the invitations to the congress 
should run ; while, on the other, the contention was that 
it powerfully affected the authority of the assemblage. 
" Europe is asked to register the decrees of Russia," said 
fcho British government, who evinced great jealousy op 



242 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. IX. 

the subject. "A congress is not a judicial tribunal," 
was the answer, " and Russia does not come as a suitor, 
but as an equal ; she has communicated the treaty to all 
the Powers; they may examine and discuss every part 
of it ; but she does not surrender the same liberty of 
appreciation and action as belongs to them." During 
the progress of the dispute the British fleet was sent into 
the Sea of Marmora, was recalled, and sent again; the 
forces of the British reserve were embodied ; a vote of 
credit for six millions was passed by the House of Com- 
mons, to be ready for emergencies; seven thousand sepoys 
were brought by the Suez Canal to Malta ; a disruption 
took place in the British ministry; the new foreign secre- 
tary indited a despatch condemning the treaty as fraught 
with danger to British interests and to the peace of Europe, 
and as depressing the independence of the Porte to a 
degree that made its continued existence almost impos- 
sible. For a while the hazards and probabilities of a war 
were seriously dreaded and keenly canvassed. At length, 
simultaneously with an adjustment of the formula of 
invitation to the congress, the conclusion of secret agree- 
ments between Britain and Russia, and between Britain 
and Turkey, smoothed the way for an accommodation. 
A congress met at Berlin on the 13th of June, and, after 
deliberating for a month, gave its sanction to the San 
Stefano treaty in almost every essential particular. 

The upshot of the war, so far as settled by this arrange- 
ment, may be thus described. Russia, while retaining a 
claim against Turkey for about fifty millions sterling of 
an indemnity, which she consented to postpone to " ante- 
rior hypothecations" of revenue, kept Kars and Ardahan, 
whicb she had conquered, while she got Batoum in Asia, 
and Bessarabia in Europe. Bosnia and the Herzegovina 
were denied the independence proposed for them; but, 
instead of being continued under Turkish sway, were 
handed over to Austria, in accordance with the suggestion 
contained in the Russian memorandum of the preced- 
ing June. The lesser powers of Roumania, Servia, 
and Montenegro, obtained an acknowledgment of their 



A.©. 1874-1880.] RENEWED INTERNAL AGITATION. 243 

independence, and an extension of their boundaries. 
Northern Bulgaria was erected into what is virtually a 
free state. The wishes of Russia in respect of Southern 
Bulgaria were overruled, the arrangement adopted 
being that, under th^ designation of E isfcern Roumelia, 
it should remain a Turkish province, but with a Christian 
governor, whom the Powers approve, immunity from the 
presence of Turkish local officials, and a native militia. 
Finally, Turkey was anew brought under engagements to 
the great Powers to amend her administration ; the right 
of interference in case of her failure was vindicated; 
while Britain, in exchange for the acquisition of Cyprus 
at a rent of £110,000 a year, undertook the obligation of 
securing good government in Asia Minor. 

Renewed Internal Agitation. — The pacification was 
favourably received ; but soon the revolutionary parties 
again asserted themselves. They strove to produce a 
state of feeling intolerable to the ruling classes. The life 
of the Tsar was repeatedly attempted. In April 1879 
four shots from a revolver were fired at him from the 
distance of a few feet, the assailant missing through 
extreme agitation. Soon after, when landing at Odessa, 
a man tried to stab him. Journeying to Moscow in 
December, his baggage train was wrecked, in mistake for 
that which carried himself, by an explosion of nitro- 
glycerine. In February 1 880 the dining-room of the winter 
palace at St. Petersburg was blown up at the usual hour 
of its occupation, he and his guests, whose arrival had 
caused some delay, being on its very threshold. No one 
can suppose that thus his dynasty would have been ended. 
The more likely conjecture is that many of the populace 
in the cities, who have no sympathy with the revolu- 
tionists, expect salutary changes from the accession of his 
eldest son, a strenuous hater of the German bureaucracy 
- — the term German (NaiLmet) has now become one of re- 
proach — who favours what is called "The National Party," 
the party of progress from within. A national assembly 
is a great object of longing; and it is understood the Tsar 
has been brought to approve the scheme of an Advising 



244 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. X. 

Council — partly nominated, partly elected — charged with 
watching the administration, but destitute of legislative 
powers. 



CHAPTER X. 

EXTENT OP THE EMPIRE — RELIGION — EDUCATION — 
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

It is computed that the Russian dominion extends 
over one-sixth of the earth. Many parts of this enor- 
mous space are sparsely peopled. Accurate knowledge 
as to its area or the number of its inhabitants has not 
been obtained. Even as to the European provinces the 
figures given are in some degree conjectural, though 
topographical surveys of nearly all have been made, and 
a census has been taken at various times. The most 
recent statement gives their superficial area (Finland and 
Poland being included) at 98,837 geographical square 
miles, and the population at something over 82,000,000. 
A return issued in 1874, taking in the vast reaches of 
Asiatic territory, makes the extent of the whole empire 
over four hundred thousand geographical square miles, or 
eight and a half millions English. More than a hundred 
tribes, with as many different languages, own the sway 
of the Tsar. For the most part they dwell upon the 
far-off frontiers. The heart of the empire is occupied 
by a homogeneous race — numbering in all well-nigh sixtj 7 
millions, the Poles and Lithuanians, the Fins and Letts, 
make up the major portion of the remainder. 

Like the Athenians of old, the native Russians are in 
all things very religious. Not only has every village, 
however small, its fane ; every dwelling, from the noble's 
hall to the peasant's shed, every place of resort, be it 
shop or eating-house, is consecrated by the presence of a 
sacred picture, the icon, hung in an honoured place 
upon the wall, with a faintly gleaming lamp before it, to 
receive the adoration of all who enter, and to turn the 



RELIGXOH. . 245 

building into a temple ; while every child has a guardian 
angel, and a baptismal cross, which is carefully treasured 
as long as life endures. Throughout the journey from 
the cradle to the grave the claims of religion meet one at 
every turn, and are acknowledged with gladsome loyalty 
as well as punctilious care. A Russian of the true type 
prays much. He fasts often. He pays an immense 
respect to sacred days, places, and things. "Slava Bogu" 
— Glory to God — is a phrase ever on his lips. Religious 
exercises are the concomitants of his every action, how- 
ever common-place ; they mingle with the most ordinary 
transactions of every-day life; and they generate a settled 
habit of devotion which no one would think of violating, 
even could it be done with impunity, which it cannot. 
In this respect an oriental spirit animates the mass of 
the people. 

Undoubtedly much of this devoutness is merely 
formal. It prompts to a multitude of ceremonial observ- 
ances which do not necessarily connect themselves with 
moral influences nor constrain to virtuous conduct. This 
does not imply that their practice must be hypocritical. 
Moral iniquity combined with a high degree of religious 
fervour is a phenomenon of perpetual recurrence in his- 
tory, and it would be idle to suppose that there are no 
modern specimens of a like incongruous union elsewhere 
than in Russia. That his religious habits have told 
powerfully for good upon the character and disposition of 
the Russian peasant, rendering him pre-eminently gentle, 
patient, and tolerant, is the verdict of all competent 
observers. There is no denying, however, that his ideas 
and feelings are largely superstitious. The pre-Christian 
faith of his remote heathen ancestors has been assimilated 
with his conception of the divine revelation, and holds 
him with a strong grip. Everywhere the old Slavonic 
gods may be detected lurking behind the sacred pictures, 
and looking out through their eyes. Thus the attributes 
of the golden-whiskered Perune, the thunder-god, have 
been transferred to the prophet Elijah. Volos, the 
ancient god of cattle, has scarce changed his name iD 



246 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. [CHAP. X. 

becoming identified with holy Vlas (our St. Blaise), who 
still has pats of butter set before his picture as offerings 
on his anniversary, when the flocks and herds are duly 
driven to church in ordei to get his blessing and protec- 
tion for the coming year. The millions of Russia, while 
devoutly receiving Christianity, have not discarded the 
wild nature-worship which preceded their knowledge and 
reception of it; and so they continue to justify the 
epithet of an old ecclesiastical writer, who called them " a 
two-faithed" people. 

The clergy of the State-church are very numerous, and 
very poorly paid. They consist of two classes, called 
secular and regular. The seculars are the parochial clergy, 
who must marry before they are allowed to perform any 
spiritual function, who are scandalously ill-educated, and 
whose position is one of great debasement. Towards 
their bishops they are abjectly subservient. Upon their 
flocks they are largely dependent; and, notwithstanding 
the importance attached to their services, very scant re- 
spect is extended to themselves. The prohibition of 
celibacy is carried so far that the death of a priest's wife 
disqualifies him for continuing in office, though it is open 
to a person thus unhappily placed to enter a convent, so 
becoming eligible for promotion to the higher grades of 
clerical rank. There are probably ten thousand monks 
in the empire. In Great Russia, especially, they swarm; 
the whole land being thickly dotted with cloisters. These 
" black clergy," as they are called, are regarded with much 
dislike by many of the educated and higher classes, though 
those taken from among them to recruit the hierarchy are 
generally held in high esteem, while, for the most part, 
they display creditable abilities. Their appointment 
comes from the Tsar, who can transfer or dismiss as he 
chooses, and who claims absolute supremacy in all the 
external affairs of the church; but he has never meddled 
with dogma. The understanding is that any innovation 
which would part the church from her sisters under the 
Patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and 
Alexandria should be judged of by a Synod; or, if need be, 



EELIGION. 247 

by a General Council of the five churches, to whose de- 
cision the Tsar would be bound to give effect. 

Save for sundry restrictions imposed upon the Jews, 
freedom of faith and worship is allowed to other recog- 
nised sects; and there are a good many of them. It is a 
rule, however, that they shall not proselytise, except 
among themselves. No member of the national church 
is permitted to renounce his creed. An avowal of heresy, 
or a lapse into schism, is counted equivalent to treason. 
A very strange and hazardous condition of things has 
arisen under this detestable law. It dare not be enforced : 
such is the magnitude of the supposed evil against which 
it is directed that its application is arrested. In the view 
of the Tsar and his advisers it cannot be safely repealed : 
they conceive that to annul it would be a sure method of 
enhancing the mischief they dread. That mischief con- 
sists, not so much in the aggrandizement of recognised 
sects, as in the encouragement of splits within the ortho- 
dox church, and in the separation from it of independent 
communities. It is notorious that the nominal conformity 
which now prevails covers a large measure of varied and 
envenomed difference. The general name of "the Raskol" 
is applied to a mass of hidden dissent, curiously diversi- 
fied in its complexion — some of it being very old, some 
the growth of recent years; some being staid, rational, 
and harmless, some full of the maddest apocalyptic ideas. 

By much the most considerable body among these dis- 
senters is the class of " the Staroveri," or " Confessors of 
the Ancient Belief." They date their origin from the revolt 
against the revision of the Liturgy carried through in 1657 
under the Patriarch Nikon. It is now generally admitted 
that the work was needful, and was well and regularly 
done. Nevertheless the publication of the new volume 
excited much commotion and resentment. This might 
have speedily subsided had not Alexis, the second of the 
Romanoff Tsars, prohibited the use of the ancient written 
Liturgy. Six prelates, many priests, and probably a half 
of the laity, refused obedience. The cause of the dispute 
was trivial, but the dispute itself, as the manner of such 



24$ HISTORY OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. X 

things is, at once hardened and widened, till reconciliation 
grew well-nigh impossible. The mass of the "old Believers" 
in the great towns are marked by the severity of their 
morals, the superiority of their culture, and a striking 
measure of worldly success. Their great difficulty in the 
perpetuation of their sect has lain in the fact that their 
founders suffered the episcopate to die out ; and as they 
strongly hold that only bishops can ordain, they were thus 
left without priests save those whom they could induce to 
desert from the State-church. At various times they have 
been subjected to dire persecution. The soothing system 
has likewise been tried upon them. Catherine II. applied 
her strong mind to an adjustment of the quarrel. In 
1789 she published an ukase granting them equal rights 
with the members of the State-church and liberty to pray 
as they liked, provided they would adopt the prayer for the 
Tsar contained in the ritual they preferred (which they 
had dropped from it), and consent to accept the services of 
priests whom the State should choose. This brought over 
some of them, though not many, and the few who came 
were nowise hearty in their allegiance, being very sus- 
picious of the prelacy, who have of course all along been 
against them. The present Tsar has likewise pursued a 
conciliatory course, giving them the greatest latitude in 
every point of their contact with the State, short of formal 
toleration. There is a possibility that the more solid and 
reasonable portion of them may be incorporated with the 
church upon their own terms. The re-union, however, 
will not be complete. Many of the "old Believers," accus- 
tomed to do without priests, have learned to deem them 
non-essential, and have either allied themselves with some 
of the extreme and fantastic schools about them, or have 
developed on their own account a creed and ritual equally 
wild. In Russian phrase, they have from being schis- 
matics become sectaries. 

It is difficult to describe this motley crew according to 
any system of classification. The leading characteristic 
of some is the practice of asceticism and self-torture. 
Among them are the Pilgrims, one portion of whom 



BBLIGIOV. 24* 

wander through the world without home or employment, 
while others, when illness or old age comes upon them, 
break up their homes to live in the open air their salva- 
tion depending upon death finding them in the guise of 
strangers and travellers. Another class is the Dumb, 
who, from the time of their conversion, refuse to speak, 
though otherwise they maintain their former habits 
towards the outer world. Then there are the Flagellants, 
who strive to win heaven by every description of self- 
scourging ; the Skopzi or Eunuchs, who call themselves 
the White Doves; and the Self-burners, who regard 
voluntary death by fire as the sole means of purification 
from sin. Of a different stamp are the Sabbatniki, 
founded by a Jew from Kief in the fifteenth century, 
who look upon the Mosaic law as the one divine revela- 
tion, Christ being merely an inspired reformer — who, 
therefore, observe the Jewish Sabbath (hence their name) 
— and who look for a Messiah yet to come ; the Milk- 
drinkers, who set up obedience to the laws of nature as 
their religion, and whose title has been thrust upon them 
from their use of milk-food on fast-days, an indulgence 
prohibited to the orthodox; and the " Duchoboizi," a 
word that may mean champions for or against the light, 
for or against the Spirit, who assign a divine origin to 
the Bible, but give to its contents a figurative, mystical, 
and recondite meaning, such as is disclosed only to the 
initiated. This enumeration does not by any means 
exhaust the medley of sects. Some of the others go to 
strange lengths of fanaticism and vagary, cherishing the 
dream of an imperishable empire, to be ruled from Mount 
Ararat, or of a reappearance of Napoleon I. as a deliverer, 
or other whimsies to the full as absurd. Their import- 
ance does not spring from their numerical strength so 
much as from the inconceivable power and influence they 
derive from the concealment they are forced to observe 
What might prove a miserably mean and ridiculous affair 
\73ie the light of day let in upon it, looms portentous and 
terrible through the mists by which it is surrounded* 
One potent excuse for retaining a policy of repression has 



250 HISTORY OF RUSSIA, [(3HAF. X. 

been found in the belief that, among the extreme sects, 
socialistic theories find eager welcome and strenuous 
support. If the conjecture be correct, it only aggravates 
the unwisdom of the treatment that has been pursued. 

Perhaps, had the enlightened ideas of Alexander I., 
as regards the education of the people, been carried out, 
a more effectual check than now exists might have been 
interposed to the spread of what is irrational and mis- 
chievous. He planned a great system of national instruc- 
tion. The outlines have been scrupulously adhered to, but 
they have not been duly filled up. The plan is perfect in 
its way : the empire is divided into districts, each of them 
being intended to have an university ; a certain number 
of " lyceums " (mainly for the education of civil servants); 
with middle schools and elementary schools, according 
to the area and population. The whole scheme reads 
like a reminiscence of the project devised by John Knox 
for Scotland. The two had a like fate, in that they both 
were dwarfed and maimed. Great progress was made of 
late years as regards the higher education, till the unfor- 
tunate demonstration of the students in 1866 led to a 
curtailment, not only of the liberties enjoyed by students. 
but of the free speech accorded to professors as a right. 

Very fabulous ideas have been circulated as to the num- 
bers and the wealth of the Russian nobility. They are 
numerous, and a few of them are rich ; but of the great 
majority it may be said that, being in honour, they do 
not abide. A very low rank in the government service 
gives personal nobility; employment in the higher grades 
carries a title to hereditary distinction ; but, unless the 
patent be renewed by fresh service, it does not endure 
beyond three generations. It is only in a select number 
of the highest families that primogeniture is recognised 
either by law or custom. Similarly, it is only the heads 
of a few great houses that possess extraordinary wealth. 
The great body of the upper classes are comparatively 
poor. Out of St. Petersburg and Moscow, it is said, .£2000 
a year would be deemed a large income. 

Spite of the efforts made by Peter the Great and 



EDUCATION. 251 

Catherine II. to create towns and a bourgeoisie, Russia 
has hitherto retained its rural character, and the numbers 
of the thriving, thrifty, pushing, mercantile class are 
small. Moreover, there is a vast preponderance of testi- 
mony which goes to show that the Russian merchant is 
scarcely qualified to take a high place. He has no cul- 
ture. In some cases he cannot sign his name. In 
many more he practises a notation which is peculiar and 
original. He makes no attempt to emulate or copy the 
manners of the upper ranks. It is in keeping with all 
this to find him credited with an offensive sharpness. 
Mr. Mackenzie Wallace compares his style of doing 
business with English horse-dealing. Nevertheless, of 
late years a great advance has been made in the prosecu- 
tion, on a large scale, both of trade and manufactures. 
Private enterprise has been largely substituted for govern- 
mental supervision. The mineral wealth of Russia is 
inexhaustible, and both coal and iron are now extensively 
wrought. The products of her cotton looms find a ready 
*aie in eastern markets ; woollen stuffs are made up of 
excellent quality ; and it is alleged that her home-made 
silks vie with those of France. 

After all, however, the "mujik," or peasant, remains 
the most notable figure in Russian society. A change 
may have begun to pass over him, but in the main he 
still exhibits the lineaments with which many travellers 
have made us familiar. He has fidelity and aflectionate- 
ness for those above him, and yet he is often tempted to 
cunning devices for cheating them. In most things he 
shows a child-like docility, but as regards some he is 
invincibly obstinate. He can originate nothing, but if 
his prejudices are overcome he will deftly imitate what 
ever is set before him. Amiable, polite, and inspired by 
a simple religious zeal; he is also idle — his laziness being 
an inheritance from the days of enforced labour ; he is 
addicted to certain kinds of theft — which he excuses by 
Baying that " God gave wood, land, and water, to all 
men alike ;" and he is fond of strong drink — this crave 
being fostered by the number of saints' days in the 



252 HISTORY CP RUSSIA. 

calendar, and by the encouragement given to intoxication 
because of the revenue derived by the government from 
the turn-over in the " vodka " shops. He clings with an 
unfaltering loyalty to the system of village rule he has 
inherited, meekly submitting to let the Patriarch choose 
a wife for hm, and flog either himself or her. Only one 
sentiment is stronger — that of boundless confidence in 
the semi-divine Tsar, whose " child " he is proud to pro- 
claim himself. Amid all the turmoil and confusion that 
prevail elsewhere, amid the gradual decline among the 
city population of the extravagant loyalty which once 
prevailed, the deep devotion of the peasantry continues 
unabated — a sentiment so widespread and earnest that it 
forms the surest basis and safeguard of the throne. 



More than a thousand years have passed since Rurik, 
the Varangian, established himself at Novgorod, and laid 
the foundation of that empire which, through many 
vicissitudes, has grown up so huge and strange a thing. 
Yet little more than a century has elapsed since Russia 
could claim a place in the comity of European nations. 
From the time of Charlemagne to the time of Peter 
she had no share in any of the struggles, moral 
or military, that convulsed Europe. Her friendship 
or her hostility was no more thought of than that of 
the wandering Tartars, who had made her wastes their 
hunting-fields. Peter, like Epaminondas, won the fame 
of lifting his country from contempt. With a happier 
fortune than Thebes it fell not by his death. Whether 
it is likely to last, upon the system he devised, is another 
question. He swept away the liberal and constitutional 
guarantees, to which the Romanoffs were pledged as the 
condition of their title to rule, replacing them by an 
absolute despotism of a novel type. He found, as his suc- 
cessors generally have done, his instruments in foreigners, 
and in foreigners belonging to small countries, who con- 
cerned themselves only with particular departments. 
Switzerland has given to Russia, Euler, the Bernorillis, 



PRESENT CONDITION OP RUSSIA. 253 

La Forte, and La Harpe; Scotland, General Gordon, 
Marshal Keith, Admiral Greig, and others; Greece, Pozzo 
de Borgo, Capo d'Istrias, and many astute diplomatists; 
while the minor states of Germany were wont to send hosts 
of adventurers, who gained the orders of St. George or 
St. Vladimir. Thus, a grinding despotism associated 
with itself an alien bureaucracy, both tending to over- 
bear, while they stand aloof from, the life of the nation. 
Two inquiries arise. It is true that in the past the 
taachinery of government has wrought without complica- 
tion or reaction, save for the occasional murder of a 
sovereign ; but can it be imagined that, with the growth 
of knowledge and opinion, fostered by increased inter- 
course with western Europe, the liberal ideas of which 
cannot be kept out by any cordon sanitaire, or checked 
at any intellectual cu~tom-house, the mass of the nation 
will be content to remain inert, without will, and with- 
out influence 1 Marvellous powers of assimilation have 
been shown; but is it likely that a dominion spread so 
far beyond all natural limit will hold together 1 ? Some 
very intelligent and sagacious men (such as Baron von 
Haxthausen, with whom there agreed the great Chan- 
cellor Nesselrode, who guided the affairs of the empire 
during forty years) seem to have had no doubt it would, 
though they counselled that Russia should turn her face 
eastward, and dared "to infer that " the time is pro- 
bably not far distant when St. Petersburg will be only 
the great port of Russia to the north of Europe, as 
Odessa is her great port in the south, and both of them 
be no more than powerful commercial cities on the 
European side of the empire." But the European side 
is menaced by hazards of the gravest sort. At present 
it would appear as if the liberal inclinations and conduct 
of Alexander II., in the early years of his reign, had 
only enhanced the probabilities of a violent explosion. 
A very different temper now prevails from that which 
marked the demonstrations held in 1862, to celebrate the 
millenium of the national history. The Nihilists may 
not be numerically powerful, yet they have adherents in 



2fr* ^ilSTORT OP RUSSIA. [CHAP. X 

all tie great towns, who are possessed by a fanatical 
earnestness, are united by a skilfully- contrived organiza- 
tion, and practise the most unscrupulous methods for 
advancing ends alike wild and detestable. With uncom- 
promising audacity they have made absolute socialism 
correlative with absolute democracy, and have linked 
both with the negation of religion and philosophy, so that 
they might re-echo the phrase of the German Fuerbach: 
*' No religion is my religion ; no philosophy is my philo- 
sophy!" To overcome this party of conspirators and 
assassins, who confound anarchy with the rights of man ; 
to slough off the sillinesses and superstitions that pertain 
to her religious creed and ritual ; to subdue the venality 
and corruption of her official class; to open up her system 
of bureaucratic administration ; and in some way to sub- 
stitute representative rule for the despotism of a soli- 
tary will, — these are the mighty tasks that lie before 
European Russia. However she may deal with them, 
whatever the issue to which she is conducted, the event 
must, to all the friends of rational freedom and well- 
ordered government, be fraught with interest and in- 
struction in regard to the fundamental principles, and 
the necessary conditions, of that great problem that h°"" 
for them a perpetual and ever-renewing vitality. 



INDEX 



Achiftflople, treat j of, 201. 

Andrussoff, treaty of, 101. 

Alexander I., his accession, 188; rela- 
tions with Napoleon, 189 ; Napo- 
leonic invasion of Russia, 191; the 
congress of Vienna, 193 ; the Holy 
Alliance, 195; death and character, 
197. 

Alexander II., sucoeeds to the throne, 
220; disturbed state of the country, 
221; serfdom abolished, 223; further 
reforms, 225; Pan-slavism and other 
forms of agitation, 225 ; another 
Polish insurrection. 226 ; advances 
in Asia and in E'urope, 228 ; rup- 
ture with Turkey, 232 ; Turkish war, 
236; treaty of San Stefano, 240; 
peace of Berlin, 241 ; attempts upon 
the Tsar's life, 244; condition of the 
empire. 245. 

BalaklavH, oattic of 215 

Baltic, expedition to, Oy British and 

French fleets, 213. 
Berlin, peace of, 241. 
Biren, the Re-ent, 142, 146, 154. 
Borodino, battle of, 191. 
Bosnia, disturbances in, 231. 
Bulgaria, Turkish atrocities in, 232; 

the war of liberation, 237. 

Catherine, wife of Peter the Great, her 
early career, 118; her conduct at the 
Pruth, 131; her reign, 139. 

Catherine the Great, her marriage, 
153 ; seizes the throne, 157 ; her 
domestic reforms, 162; her foreign 
palicy, 165-70; her territorial acqui- 
sitions, 180. 

Charles XII. of Sweden invades 
Russia, 124. 

Christianity becomes the national reli- 
gion, 26. 

Constantine, the Grand Duke, refuses 
th*. throne, 197. 

Cossacks, alliance with the, 100; come 
under Russian sway, 102 ; those of 
the Dneiper maltreated — terrible 
scenes, 103. 

draco w, republic of, extinguished, 206, 



Crimea, the, invaded, 107; invaded • 

second time, 145 : conquered and 
annexed, 168; visited by Catherine 
and the Emperor of Austria, 173 , 
war in, by Turkey and her western 

allies, 208-18. 

Dimitry Donskoi defeats the Tartars 

50. 
Dimitry, son of Ivan the Terrible, 

murdered, 75. 
Dimitry, the first false, his successes 

and fate, 80-86. 
Dimitries, other false, 88. 
Dissent, religious, 247. 

Education, national, 250. 

Elizabeth, her accession, 148 ; hei 

cruelties, 149 ; results of her rule, 

153 
Empire, the, divided and reunited, 

22, 29, 34 ; extent and population 

of. 244. 

F^oaor, the reign ol, 104. 

Godunoff Boris, his regency, 75; kii 

reign, 78. 

Horde, the Golden, 43, 66. 

Igor, reign of, 19. 

Ivan of the Purse, 49. 

Ivan III., 54. 

Ivan the Terrible, 57; his good years 
59; his resignation and reacceptaw* 
of the throne, 62; his terrible cruel- 
ties, 65; the murder of the Tsare 
vitch, 69; his death, 71. 

Inkerman, the battle of, 215. 

Jassy, the treaty of, 176. 

Kainardja, the treaty of, 170. 

Kieff, emigration to, 17 ; becomes the 
capital, 19; abandoned for Vladimir, 
37: destroyed by the Tartars, 42. 

Menschikoff, Prince, favourite of Peter 
the Great, 118, 141 ; ambassador 
extraordinary to Turkey, 209. 



256 



INDEX. 



Michael I., his elee*,.,,^ -jad reign, 
93, 98. 

Moscow, burned by the Tartars, 40; 
becomes the capital, 48; in posses- 
sion of the Poles, 89; retaken, 92; 
burned in resistance to Napoleon, 
191. 

Munich, Marshal, 144, 149, 154, 158, 
160. 

f(«vsky, Prince Alexander, his oppo- 
sition to the Tartars, 43. 

Nicholas, the Tsar, his accession, 197; 
conspiracy against him, 198 ; war 
with Turkey — the peace of Adrian- 
ople, 201 ; Polish insurrection — 
seizure of territory, 203 ; alliance 
with the Turks, 204; disputes with 
the Western Powers, 205 ; Cracow 
suppressed, 206; the Crimean war, 
its origin, 208; siege of Sebastopol, 
216; death, 219. 

Nobility, character of, 250. 

Novgorod, traditional history of, 14; 
seized by Burik the Varangian, 15; 
asserts its independence, 37; sacked 
by Ivau the Terrible, 70; patriotic 
resistance to the Poles, 91. 

Olez, reign of, 18. 

Olga, regency of, and conversion to 
Chr^iaUty, 20. 

Paul, the Tsar, 183; his foibles, 184; 
his wars, 185; his murder, 187. 

Paris, the treaty of, 218, 230. 

Peasantry, character of, 251. 

Peter the Great, his education, 108; 
seizes the throne, 109 ; creates an 
army and navy, 112; visits western 
countries, 114 ; founds St. Peters- 
burg, 117 ; marries Catherine, 118; 
his conflict with Charles XII., 123; 
the battle of Pultowa, 126 ; con- 
quests from Sweden, 127; war with 
Turkey, 129 ; battle of the Pruth, 
131 ; second visit to the west, 136; 
his character and achievements, 140. 

Peter II., his brief reign, 141. 

Peter III., his accession, 151 : deposi- 
tion, 156; murder, 153, 



Plevna, the t lege </. 234\ 

Poland, invasion by, repulsed, D2; 
war with, 98; the first partition cf, 
165-8 ; the second partition, 177; 
opposition suppressed by Suwarrofl 
—the third partition, 179; insurrec- 
tion of 1830, 203; of 1861, 225. 

Population, primitive, 9; amount and 
distribution of, 245. 

Potemkin, Prince, 172, 180. 

Pultowa, battle of, 126. 

Religion in Russia, 247. 
Romanoffs, the, their origin, 95. 
Rurik the Varangian, 15; his reign, 18, 
Rylieffs, Conrad, conspiracy, 193. 

Sebastopol, siege of, 214. 
Serfdom, instituted, 77; abolished, 222. 
Serai-Batcha, the buried city, 55. 
Slavonians, government and manners 

of, in early times, 11. 
Sophia, regency of, 105. 
Stefano, San, treaty of, 241. 
Suwarroff, Marshal, 175, 179, 186. 
Strelitzes, the, 64, 86. 
Sviotaslaf, his reign, 21, 
Sweden, war with. 97; cessions of tep° 

ritory by, 127, 150, 194. 

Tartar, the, dominatic/n, 40; its down* 
fall, 55. 

Turkey, views of Alexis I. as to, 103» 
war with, under Peter the Great 
131 ; Ander Anne, 165 ; views Jt 
Marshal Munich, 146 ; war with, 
under Catherine, 107; viewsof Alex- 
ander I. 189 ; first war with, under 
Nicholas, 204; views of Nicholas, 
208; the Crimean war, 209-18; war 
with, under Alexander II, , 235. 

Vienna, the congress of, 173. 
Vladimir I , his reign, 23; conversion 

to Christianity, 26. 
Vladimir 11., his reign and cbaraots* 

56. 
Vladimir, the city of, 57. 

'-Toslaf, the lawgiver, II 



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